ABSTRACT

Widespread neoliberal approaches to education consider schools increasingly accountable for self-management and ‘client’ recruitment, encapsulating economic ideologies that assume privatisation is essential for social progress. With an ever-shifting landscape of market-driven policies and the increasing growth of private education settings, more research is needed to cast light on emerging or under-researched aspects of autonomous schools. Located within a U.S. state that has strict constraints on tax subsidies for religious K-12 education, this paper investigates how an extensive form of decentralisation corresponds with schools’ discipline and ethical environment. It analyses teacher interviews and web documents from faith-based, autonomous schools in a state that has devolved power and authority for decision-making to parents and other independent ‘agents’, having a distanced relationship with its non-state ‘actors’. The paper follows Foucault’s use of the metaphor of the panopticon and adopts his power analysis to examine the nature of parental control and its influence on disciplinary and ethical practices. Evidence suggests that these autonomous schools are driven by a ‘mini-public’ ideology that constrains educators’ autonomy and generates particular disciplinary norms; entangling ethical, educational, and social ramifications, including teacher resistance and teacher demoralisation. Implications for policy are discussed in this context of control.

摘要

广泛的新自由主义教育方法认为学校越来越多地对自我管理和“客户”招聘负责，封装了认为私有化对社会进步至关重要的经济意识形态。随着市场驱动政策的不断变化和私立教育环境的日益增长，需要更多的研究来阐明自治学校的新兴或研究不足的方面。本文位于对宗教 K-12 教育的税收补贴有严格限制的美国州内，调查了广泛的权力下放形式如何与学校的纪律和道德环境相适应。它分析了来自一个以信仰为基础的自治学校的教师访谈和网络文件，该州拥有将决策权下放给父母和其他独立的“代理人”，与非国家“行为者”保持距离。本文沿用福柯对圆形监狱隐喻的运用，并采用他的权力分析来检验父母控制的性质及其对纪律和伦理实践的影响。有证据表明，这些自治学校是由一种“小众”意识形态驱动的，这种意识形态限制了教育者的自主权并产生了特定的学科规范；纠缠伦理、教育和社会影响，包括教师抵抗和教师士气低落。在这种控制背景下讨论了对政策的影响。