Inside the Autonomous School

Maija Salokangas is Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.Mel Ainscow is Professor of Education and Co-director of the Centre for Equity in Education at the University of Manchester, UK.

‘Inside the Autonomous School documents what actually happens when well-intentioned reforms are subverted by standardization and managerialism. At the same time, Salokangas and Ainscow provide us with clear lessons on what needs to be done to defend substantive autonomy in policy and practice.’- Professor Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin, USA, and author of Can Education Change Society? ‘This book is a must for those thinking seriously about education. It maps the international trend of independent state-funded schooling, while also carefully reflecting on national distinctions.’ - Professor Becky Francis, UCL Institute of Education, UK.‘In a field of policy littered with hyperbole, [the authors] subject superficial exhortations of "autonomy" and "innovation" to a serious empirical examination.’ - Professor Roger Slee, University of South Australia, Australia."This book takes a neat approach to the topic of school autonomy: it starts by describing trends at the global level, zooms in to give more detail to the reforms in England, and then spends the rest of the book detailing how these have played out over time at a particular (anonymous but real) school it calls “Parkside Academy”. This makes the whole thing very readable, and really helped to bring the issues to life."- Mark Lehain, Schools Week"This is a remarkable book... that shows how the rhetoric of autonomy is very much that- it is a rhetoric, a pretence, and a myth. Micro-management, top-down control, surveillance, and constant monitoring replace any supposed ‘autonomy’, freedom, trust, or professionalism"- Craig Skerritt, Dublin City University, Ireland"This book is rich in detail and insight. It shows what is happening in England not only in many academies, especially those in multi-academy trusts, but indeed across the system."- Terry Wrigley, Northumbria University, UK

• Foreword by Professor Priscilla Wohlstetter, Teachers College Columbia University Preface Chapter 1: A global trend Chapter 2: Independent state-funded schools in England Chapter 3: Phoenix rising from the ashes Chapter 4: Results, results, results Chapter 5: Like plastic dogs nodding Chapter 6: A turbulent year Chapter 7: The reality of local autonomy Chapter 8: Analysing global developments Chapter 9: Where next for autonomous schools? Appendix: Notes on inquiry methods References