Author: Peter Mader
Mader, Peter, 2024 Principal associations: the struggle for political agency in neoliberalising policy regimes, Flinders University, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
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My thesis investigates the contested terrain of public education policy in South Australia (1995-2020) between the bureaucracy who formulate it and principal associations who advocate for its improvement. Using Bacchi’s ‘what’s the problem represented to be’ framework (2009) as a theoretical foundation for a genealogy, I reveal how principals have been constituted and constituted themselves by expanded accountabilities and diminished autonomy across three major reforms. Despite being constrained by this rendering, school leaders contested and resisted this subjugation through the political work of principal associations.
Expanding upon Thomson’s (2008) idea that the question of resistance needs to take seriously the “collective professional organisations” (p. 86) of principals, my examination of one principal association’s political struggle to improve public education policy establishes limitations and possibilities. Using Apple, Foucault and Mouffe, I propose some plausible options for principal associations to expand their political work to disrupt the neoliberal project.
Keywords: principal associations, principal autonomy, resistance, compliance, neoliberal education policy
Subject: Education thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2024
School: College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Supervisor: Dr Andrew Bills