Governors, Schools and the Miasma of the Market

Abstract

The paper examines some of the effects of exposing state schools to the strictures of the market on three governing bodies of secondary schools in two local education authorities. Using illustrative data drawn from an intensive 4 year study, the authors argue that the imposition of the market on schools can exacerbate value divisions between governors in the same school. Also the concern to improve the image and marketability of a school can result in attention being focused on the needs of future rather than existing pupils. Competition between schools may thus result not in higher quality education or diversity of provision but rather produce a search for uniformity in the shape of the desirable middle‐class parent and child. The notion of schools serving a local community may thus be disrupted and choice for working‐class and ethnic minority parents and pupils reduced rather than increased.