Creeping corporatisation: Educators' insights into non-traditional schools system level leadership

Australia’s non-government school sector has seen significant shifts in its forms of governance in recent years, particularly in the large Catholic schools sector. In response to accountability, compliance, political and regulatory forces, school networks and systems have adopted increasingly corporatised forms of governance and executive leadership by people with other than an educational leadership background. This is a move away from traditional executive leadership models, which were largely human-resourced from the pool of former principals.

This presentation reports on a current research project, sharing insights of principals and system leaders with educational leadership backgrounds into the impacts and implications of a move to more generalist rather than specialist executive leadership of schools’ networks and systems. 

Semi-structured interviews with system and governance leaders as well as school principals provide insights into the implications of these changing system leadership for the confidence and trust in educational leaders among various stakeholders. The presentation will address the question of how these governance changes influence educational leadership practices.
The findings of this study will provide valuable insights for policymakers, educational authorities, and school communities, and will facilitate a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with the evolving corporatisation of schools’ governance structures