Introduction

In this chapter, I examine the role and ideology of corporatisation and the image of the corporation as a dominant policy technology guiding different aspects of school governance in England. Corporatisation can be defined as the regulation of public organisations and utilities by specific interests, laws or rules intended to subsume the ‘public’ within the logic of the ‘private’. This does not necessarily mean that public organisations are fully privatised since they remain publicly-owned and intensively regulated by their owners, the state. Instead, it points to the transformation of public entities as business-like organisations governed by managerialist practices of securing productivity, efficiency and value for money through internal audit, performance evaluation and enterprise activities. That is to say, corporatisation is not privatisation but refers to the performance and regulation of public organisations as if they were for-profit organisations.

Corporatisation also requires certain techniques, shared values, social relations and practices to predominate over others in order for the above conditions to be made legitimate and desirable. This is because, under corporate ideology, means can always be justified where they are commensurate with the fulfilment of certain ends. Therefore, value differences or value divergences tend to be regarded as risky business. In this chapter, I consider the extent to which corporate strategies are evident in the kinds of everyday work performed and inhabited by agents of school governance, namely school governors. Moreover, I consider whether ‘corporate elitism’, rather than corporate elites per se, is implicit in decisions concerning who and why certain people get to enter governance roles.

For well over six hundred years, governors in England have played an essential role as the ‘custodians’, ‘stewards’ and ‘wardens’ of schools, in essence bringing judgements to bear upon the ‘performance’ or ‘quality’ of schools as publicly accountable institutions. Governors refer to parent, staff and community volunteers who are either elected or co-opted to their position and who have traditionally occupied a lay role as ‘critical friends’ to the leaders and managers of schools. Today, however, that role is changing significantly, and increasingly governors find themselves being trained and made responsible in new ways that mirror elements of corporate aspirations and principles.