Reclaiming Autonomy in Education in Neoliberal Times

Employing Jurgen Habermas's notions of communicative and strategic action (1984), this paper draws on case studies of principals' decision making practices in three sites of Finland, Australia and Jamaica. The research examined principals' understandings of educational autonomy as a part of their practices of decision making. The paper argues that in current times, autonomy of schools and educators has frequently been (mis)understood as a synonym for the freedom of an individual school/principal, parent and/or student operating within the hegemony of the market. The paper offers a fresh alternative to market discourses of autonomy, by presenting a new conceptual framework which 'speaks back' to the neoliberal frames of reference which have captured notions of autonomy in Anglophone public education systems.