Critical friendship as a contribution to master’s‐level work in an international programme of study

This article reports on an action research project in which the value of critical friendship for students doing research and writing their dissertations within an international master’s course has been explored. This course is run jointly by Roehampton University (London, UK), Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) together with Fontys OSO (Tilburg, the Netherlands). It describes the process and the results of working with the concept of critical friendship in this master’s course since its start in 2005. Data were collected by means of various qualitative instruments and data sources: evaluation forms after tutorial sessions, reflective logs and focus interviews. The results show that the process of engaging with the research they did was enhanced and supported by the development of critical friendship groups. A number of recommendations have been formulated, such as the importance of discussing the concept of critical friend and its philosophy with the participants and of defining roles and tasks as clearly as possible.     

School effectiveness: new managerialism,quality and the Japanization of education

School effectiveness is a microtechnology of change. It is a relay device, which transfers macro policy into everyday processes and priorities in schools. It is part of the growing apparatus of performance evaluation. Change is brought about by a focus on the school as a site-based system to be managed. There has been corporate restructuring in response to the changing political economy of education. There are now new work regimes and radical changes in organizational cultures. Education, like other public services, is now characterized by a range of structural realignments, new relationships between purchasers and providers and new coalitions between management and politics. In this article, we will argue that the school effectiveness movement is an example of new managerialism in education. It is part of an ideological and technological process to industrialize educational productivity. That is to say, the emphasis on standards and standardization is evocative of production regimes drawn from industry. There is a belief that education, like other public services can be managed to ensure optimal outputs and zero defects in the educational product.