Search

In 1993 the UK Economic and Social Research Council funded the Parental and School Choice Interaction (PACSI) Study into the marketisation of education, conducted by the author along with Philip Woods and Ron Glatter of the Open University. The findings from the PACSI study highlighted the localised and complex nature of markets in education and reported the ways in which senior school managers adopted a variety of strategies to respond to the local competitive arena in which they found themselves. In more than ten years since this study the UK Government has changed from Conservative to Labour and policy discourses on choice and competition have been situated alongside those of collaboration and partnership. In this shifting policy landscape the paper utilises analytical tools and findings from the original study to revisit one of the case study areas and examines the market environment in which senior school managers find themselves today. The findings reveal a stronger ‘parent as consumer’ marketing orientation and responsiveness on behalf of schools and an environment in which competition and rivalry has intensified and continues to discursively predominate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercialisation of schools is a controversial issue, but very little is known about the actual situation in UK schools. The aim of this study was to investigate, with particular reference to health education and health promotion, commercial activities and their regulation in primary schools in the Yorkshire and Humber region of the UK. A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 650 headteachers with respondents being asked whether a range of commercial activities had been present in their school during the previous 20 months. They also indicated whether the school had any policies on the types of activity covered by the questionnaire. The results showed that four types of commercial activity had been present in over 50% of responding schools. These were voucher/token collection schemes, business linked competitions/contests, business linked sports coaching and sponsorship. Voucher/token collection schemes were found to be the most common form of activity, with 85% of schools having participated in at least one of these initiatives. Only 4% of schools had any policies on the types of activity covered in the questionnaire. Further research in the UK on commercial activities in schools is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslim schools are a relatively new phenomenon in British education. This article surveys the situation of such schools in Britain today with particular reference to the city of Birmingham. In the second part, it examines some of the issues thrown up by such school for the State, Schools and Religion debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]