The Managerial School: Post-welfarism and Social Justice in Education

InThe Managerial SchoolSharon Gerwirtz draws on in-depth interviews with teachers in a range of secondary schools and close observation of actual practice to try to answer some of these questions. Having presented the evidence, she argues that New Labour's 'third way' for education is a contradictory mix of neo-liberal, authoritarian and humanistic strands that is not in any real sense a new educational settlement. This empirically based account of the last two decades of education 'reform' offers a unique insight into the effects of managerialism on schools and a hard-hitting analysis of the inherent tensions in a system that undoubtedly perpetrates social injustice.

Sharon Gewirtz is Professor of Education at King's College London.