Decentralised’ neoliberalism and/or ‘masked’ re-centralisation? The policy to practice trajectory of Maltese school reform through the lens of neoliberalism and Foucault

Bibliographic Data

ID11489166
AuthorsDione Mifsud (0000-0001-6330-4528, University of the West of Scotland, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume31
Issue4
Pages443-465
Publication date2016-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Education Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-0939 • E-ISSN: 1464-5106
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02680939.2015.1121409
OpenAlexW2223315800
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited56

The politics of the later part of the twentieth century have been marked by the emergence of neoliberalism, which has consequently impregnated the global policy climate with neoliberal technologies of government. It is within this political scenario of hegemonic neoliberal discourse that I explore one aspect of school reform in Malta – contrived school networking as mandated by the policy document ‘For All Children to Succeed’ (FACT), issued in 2005, by which Maltese primary and secondary state schools were geographically clustered into 10 colleges. I explore the influence of neoliberalism and the presence/absence of its characteristics, namely, State central control, the ‘empowerment’ agenda and the tension between autonomy and accountability. This is done both through policy analysis and policy reception – I carry out a documentary analysis of FACT and present this together with the leaders’ views, collated from interviews and observation, after being subjected to narrative analysis and interpreted through Foucault’s concepts of discourse and governmentality. Despite the gradual unfolding of the decentralization process, there is a very strong presence of State central control. Besides methodological significance for policy scholarship, this article has particular philosophical implications for educational policy, practice and theory within the infrastructure of globalized neoliberal governmentality

Accountability · Autonomy · Centralisation · Decentralization · Education policy · Governmentality · Hegemony · Higher education · Managerialism · Neoliberalism (international relations · Policy analysis · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · State (computer science · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law · Public Administration

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