The commercialisation of school administration: one school's enactment of a student management system in Aotearoa New Zealand. (3rd April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cowan, Jackie; Hogan, Anna; Enright, Eimear
• Is Part Of: Journal of educational administration and history. Volume 54:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 193
• Page End: 206
• Publication Date: 2022-04-03
• Subjects: Privatisation -- commercialisation -- public–private partnerships -- data -- data infrastructures -- student management systems; School management and organization -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Administration scolaire -- Grande-Bretagne -- Périodiques; 371.2
• DOI: 10.1080/00220620.2021.1988524
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0620

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The intensification of data collection practices in schooling – often due to state accountability requirements – has resulted in the widespread adoption of commercial student management systems (SMS) in schools. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a New Zealand primary school, this paper investigates its adoption of a commercial SMS, and the ways this product re-engineers schooling processes, including what student data is collected, how school decisions are made, and when work is done by staff. Through this analysis, we argue direct-to-school commercial relationships constitute a new configuration of public–private partnerships in education. We demonstrate the rise of a local education market for data management where responsibility is placed on individual schools to choose a commercial product that will interface with the needs of a public bureaucracy. We end this paper with a critical discussion about how the commercialisation of school administration affects the broader infrastructures of public schooling.