Anatomy of a Professionalization Project The Making of the Modern School Business Manager

by Woods, Charlotte

• ISBN13: 9781780935904
• ISBN10: 1780935900
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781780937823
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-12-18
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• More Book Details

Summary

Public services have been a target for reform in Western-style democracies for more than three decades. This volume documents and examines the case of School Business Managers (SBMs) as an example of a growing but scarcely-acknowledged phenomenon: the government-backed creation of new 'professions' within the public sector for groups of support workers not formally recognised as such.

The dawn of the millennium saw the beginning of an unprecedented professional project as the New Labour government set about the systematic creation of a pool of suitably skilled and qualified School Business Managers in England. The Government's stated purpose was to support educational leaders in meeting mounting public expectations for state schools in increasingly complex and challenging circumstances.Although the 'war stories' of lead professionals such as teachers and physicians in the context of reform have been extensively documented, the contribution of the army of less high-status professionals in public service institutions is poorly-understood.

Drawing on first-hand accounts of people involved in bringing the SBM professional project about, and those whose professional lives the project sought to target, the SBMs themselves, the book turns the spotlight on an under-recognised group. It explores the purposes and outcomes of the professionalization initiative, comparing the process to the professional projects of SBMs in other countries and to parallel projects within the health sector.

Author Biography

Charlotte Woods is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Manchester, UK. She has experience as an educator and educational manager both in the UK and internationally (Italy, Portugal, Morocco and Russia) and since 2002 has acted as researcher and consultant on various projects for the National College for Teaching and Leadership in connection with their School Business Manager Development Programme.

Table of Contents

Preface

1.Introduction

Part One: Power, Politics and Professionalism
2.The Project in Context
3.Professionalism and Public Service

Part Two: The Professional Project
4.The Making of the Modern SBM
5.Professional Preparation
6.Credentials and Careers

Part Three: Professional Knowledge Applied
7.Individual Factors
8.Interpersonal Factors
9.Institutional Factors

Part Four: Political and Personal Projects
10.Professionalization as Political Project
11.Professionalization as Personal Project

Part Five: Parallel Projects
12.The US Project
13.Other SBM Projects
14.New Projects in Health

Part Six: Professional futures
15.Future Prospects
16.Conclusions

Bibliography
Index