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Book Cover
E-book
Author Gunter, Helen, author

Title Consultants and consultancy : the case of education / Helen M. Gunter, Colin Mills
Published Cham : Springer, 2017

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Description 1 online resource
Series Educational governance research, 2365-9548 ; volume 4
Educational governance research ; v. 4.
Contents Foreword -- by Meg Maguire -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- 1. Consultants and consultancy in education -- Part 1: Consultants and consultancy in action -- 2. Corporate consultants in global companies -- 3. Researchers as consultants in and outside of universities -- 4. Professionals as consultants in and outside of companies -- Part 2: Consultants and consultancy and knowledge in education policy -- 5. Consultants and clients: Knowledge Regimes -- 6. Consultants in context: Knowledge Practices -- 7. Consultants and capitalism: Knowledge Economies -- 8. Consultants and 'consultocracy': Knowledge Politics -- 9. Conclusion -- References
Summary This book is a comprehensive study into and about consultants doing consultancy, and having influence in ways that generate concerns about an emerging 'consultocracy', with privileged access to governments and public services. It presents a detailed mapping of consultants and consultancy in education as a site of change and modernisation in public sector service provision. It considers consultancy at a macro-level of globalised policy, at a meso-level of national government policy, and at a micro level with vivid descriptions and analyses of consultants at work. The rapid rise of 'edubusinesses', combined with the restructuring of public services in western style democracies, has generated new types of 'knowledge actors' within education policy. Three main developments that have led to this change are: the entry of education policy and service consultants from within major companies into the public education market place; the emergence of 'celebrity' entrepreneurial actors and private businesses who make interventions into Universities and schools; and the rapid growth of small businesses based on individuals who have relocated their work from the public to the private sector. Such knowledge actors and the complexities they bring to public education are as yet under described and largely un-theorized. Based on current research and drawing upon a range of theoretical tools, this book fills the gap. Gunter and Mills provide an invaluable contribution to scholarship on the neoliberal restructuring of public education by mapping and analyzing the under-examined yet central role of corporate education consultants. Their thoughtful and thorough discussion expands our understanding of how consultants promote and trade in the ideologies of corporate culture. Gunter and Mills show how consultants are integral to both knowledge making practices in schools and a radical reform agenda for schools in the UK and around the globe. This is an accessible and important volume for not just policy and politics scholars but anyone concerned about defending public forms of education and associated living at a moment when they are increasingly being positioned for pillage by profiteers. Kenneth J. Saltman, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed March 16, 2017)
Subject Educational consultants -- Great Britain
Education and state -- Great Britain
Business and education -- Great Britain
School improvement programs -- Great Britain
Organization & management of education.
Schools.
Educational strategies & policy.
EDUCATION -- Administration -- General.
EDUCATION -- Organizations & Institutions.
School improvement programs
Educational consultants
Business and education
Education
Education and state
School management and organization
Great Britain
Form Electronic book
Author Mills, Colin, author
ISBN 9783319488790
3319488791