Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication (Name of Journal)

Education in Troubled Times: A Global Pluralist Response

Publisher

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

City

Newcastle upon Tyne

Abstract

This chapter examines the drivers of academisation in order to better understand the emergence, growth, and impact of academy schools in England. It traces the expansion of academy schools as part of ongoing educational reforms that were reinforced by a neoliberal narrative and facilitated by the state through subsidies and the underfunding and disinvestment of state-run schools. This was driven by the private for-profit and non-profit sectors as key agents in the implementation, and sometimes formulation, of government education policy, along with the state which was an active participant and beneficiary through the revolving door involving politicians, senior civil servants, and the private sector. The chapter looks at how academisation fundamentally altered governance and accountability structures and provided profit opportunities for the education services industry at a cost to taxpayers.

Comments

Preprint. Accepted for publication in 2021. Published in August 2022.

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