Education Policy, Neoliberalism, and Leadership Practice is a foundational book describing all aspects of neoliberalism and its broad scale impact in education. Drawing on research and canvassing policy developments across a range of contexts, this book critically analyzes neoliberal education policies, the practices and outcomes they spawn, and the purposes they serve. It interrogates how education leaders perceive and interpret neoliberal influences and the dilemmas and opportunities they create, while unpacking questions of why neoliberalism is the basis for educational policy, how neoliberalism impacts on education, and what this means for the future.

This volume explores how educational policy is changing as a result of neoliberal restructuring and how these issues affect educators’ practice. Evidence-based chapters present a sharp analysis of neoliberal education policy while also offering suggestions and recommendations for future action to bring about change consistent with more robust understandings of democracy. Covering issues relating to historical context, philosophical assumptions, policy implementation, accountability, teacher professionalism and standardization, Confronting Educational Policy in Neoliberal Times critically engages the ways micro- and macro- neoliberal politics shapes the purposes and implementation of schooling.

This book explores community education in Ireland and argues that neoliberalism has had a profound effect on community education. Rather than retain its foundational characteristics of collective, equality-led principles and practices, community education has lost much of its independence and has been reshaped into spaces characterised by labour-market activation, vocationalisation and marketisation. These changes have often, though not always, run contrary to the wishes of those involved in community education creating enormous tensions for practitioners, course providers and participants.

Educational Leadership brings together innovative perspectives on the crucial role of theory and theorising in educational leadership at a time when the multiple pressures of marketisation, competition and system fragmentation dominate the educational landscape. This original and highly thought-provoking edited collection is a much-needed counterbalance to the anti-theoretical trends that have underpinned recent education reforms. Contributors employ a range of theories in original and innovate ways in order to reveal the lived experiences of what it means to be an educational leader at a time of rapid modernisation, where the conceptual terrain of ‘modern’ has been appropriated by corporate and private interests, where notions of ‘public’ are not only hidden, but also derided, and where school leaders must meet the conflicting demands of competing accountabilities. Drawing on research projects conducted in the UK, Educational Leadership presents convincing evidence that the need to consider theory crosses national borders, and the authors discuss changes to professional identities and practices that researchers around the world will recognise. This detailed and insightful work will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of education and sociology, as well as those with an interest in organisational and political theory. The topical subject matter also makes the book of relevance to practitioners and policy-makers in education and the public services more generally.

A call to explore and map the educatıonal challenges under neolıberalısm across the globe / Khalid Arar, Deniz Örücü and Jane Wilkinson -- Challenges of school principals and teachers in private schools : comparison of Turkısh and Palestenian cases / Deniz Örücü and Khalid Arar -- Neolıberal challenges in public schools in Hong Kong : an East Asian model? / Paula Kwan, Benjamin Yuet Man Li and Trevor Tsz-lok Lee -- Principals' leadership tensioned by market pressures In Chile / Romina Madrid Miranda, Claudia Córdoba Calquín and Catherine Flores Gómez -- Polıcy-practıce decouplıng : education inspection reform in China / Meng Tian and Xianjun Lan -- Issues in pre- and primary school education in rural Turkey : teachers' experiences and perspectives / Ecem Karlıdağ-Dennis and Zeynep Temiz -- Stepping up or stepping aside? : the necessity of balancing promise with critique / Maysaa Barakat and Daniel Reyes-Guerraa -- Neoliberalism : the straw that broke the back of Lebanon's education system / Julia Mahfouz -- The neoliberal challenge to leading in disadvantaged public primary schools in Victoria, Australia / Katrina MacDonald, Jane Wilkinson and Corine Rivalland -- Educational administration challenges in the destabilised and disintegrating states of Syria and Yemen : the intersectionality of violence, culture, ideology, class/status group and postcoloniality / Eugenie A. Samier -- Commonalities in schools and education systems around the world shifting from welfarism to neo liberalism : are the kids are okay? / Alison Taysum and Carole Collins Ayanlaja -- Doing social justice leadership in challenging circumstances : principals' perspectives / Rinnelle Lee-Piggott, Dyanis Conrad-Popova and Dennis Conrad -- How leaders of outstandıng Muslım schools in England interpret Islamic educatıonal values in a neolıberal clımate : 'Brıtısh values' and market competıtıon / Fella Lahmar -- Concluding remarks : meeting at the global/local nexus of school challenges : what next / Khalid Arar, Deniz Örücü and Jane Wilkinson.

Offers an account of contemporary trends in education reform and public sector governance, focusing on the increasing role of business and philanthropy in education service delivery and education policy and the emergence of new forms ofnetwork governance.

This book uses a multi-dimensional conceptual framework to demonstrate how neoliberal forces have been manifested through changes to K–12 public education finance policy in British Columbia, Canada between 2001 and 2015. The text offers in-depth critical policy analysis to illustrate how the public education system has been impacted by the emergence of a hybrid model of public-private funding. By examining the impacts of this neoliberalized model, in which school districts must compete for public funding and engage in for-profit activities, the book highlights emerging financial inequalities; exacerbated inequities for students; increased entrepreneurialism; closer alignment of administrators’ subjectivities with a managerial approach to educational leadership; and an illusion of local autonomy. Ultimately, the text makes powerful contributions by calling attention to detrimental processes of neoliberalization, marketization, and privatization within public education, as well as the managerialization of educational leadership. This text will benefit researchers, academics, educators, and educational leaders with an interest in the politics of education policy and finance, school district leadership, international and comparative education, and the sociology of education.