Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- One School governing: a moment in time
- Two The Trojan Horse affair: media phenomenon and policy driver
- Three School governors in the media
- Four Framing the work of school governors, 2008–15
- Five Democratic accountability: governors in a changing system
- Six Governors making sense of their work
- Seven Post-Trojan Horse: changes to policy and practice since the Trojan Horse affair
- References
- Index
Six - Governors making sense of their work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- One School governing: a moment in time
- Two The Trojan Horse affair: media phenomenon and policy driver
- Three School governors in the media
- Four Framing the work of school governors, 2008–15
- Five Democratic accountability: governors in a changing system
- Six Governors making sense of their work
- Seven Post-Trojan Horse: changes to policy and practice since the Trojan Horse affair
- References
- Index
Summary
When organisational scandals occur, the common refrain among commentators is: ‘where was the board in all this?’ ‘How could the directors not have known what was going on?’ and ‘Why didn’t the board intervene?’ (Hough et al, 2014, p 142)
Introduction
The changes to education policy that have gained pace since the Coalition government in 2010, as explained in previous chapters, have undoubtedly placed innumerable pressures on school governors: changing school structures; new complexities in networked and federation governance; and a system of accountability that places a great deal of pressure on governors to monitor school performance. However, these are far from the only pressures being placed on school governors today. As earlier chapters explained, the media also plays a considerable role by inciting opprobrium with sensationalised headlines that blame governors for school failure.
Rapid policy-driven changes have presented challenges for all schools, but in areas of high socio-economic deprivation – traditionally difficult areas for governing bodies to operate – these challenges have been magnified. Some of the most recent research into the challenges faced by governors in these areas is documented in a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (see Dean et al, 2007). Although the report also emphasises that many of the problems encountered by schools resonate with all governing bodies, it makes the point that governing bodies in these areas have particular issues:
[Schools in areas of high socio-economic deprivation] tend to find themselves under greater pressure than their counterparts elsewhere.… to some extent this comes from the distinctive social, economic and educational issues in such areas – issues that manifest themselves in schools most obviously through low levels of attainment, and potentially high levels of special educational needs, student absence, student mobility and disciplinary problems. (Dean et al, 2007, p 6)
The report identified a number of issues that were particularly prevalent in these areas: difficulties in recruiting parent governors; difficulties in recruiting governors representative of the locality and socio-economic background of most of the pupils; difficulties in recruiting governors whose first language is not English, alongside suspicion among governors about the motives of fellow governors for taking on the role – particularly if these governors were from out of the area; and tensions between making governing body meetings enjoyable and the content accessible to most governors, and ensuring a balance between challenge and support.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- School GovernancePolicy, Politics and Practices, pp. 117 - 146Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2016