Description:
Today, workers based in institutions designed to serve the public - teachers, nurses, social workers, community officers, librarians, civil servants, etc - are expected to reorganize their thoughts and practice in accordance with a 'performance' management model of accountability which encourages a rigid bureaucracy, one which translates regulation and monitoring procedures into inflexible and obligatory compliance. This book shows how and why this performance model may be expected, paradoxically, to make practices less accountable - and, in the case of education, less educative.
Review Quotes:
"...there is much to enjoy in this extended essay that is of relevance beyond the world of education. Defending the priority of seasoned judgement against a world of auditing and targets may also prove to be an argument whose time has come and may find surprisingly fertile ground in the new politics of austerity sweeping through Western Europe."-Michael Power, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol.33, No.4, July 2012
"Jane Green's book is an important addition to the literature on professionalism. It aims and lands some well-directed (and much deserved) volleys on the target of the new public management. It is scrupulously written, attendant to the contemporary literature, and sustains a progressive narrative throughout." - Ron Barnett, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol.48, No.3, 2014"There is much to recommend this book. Green has a firm grasp of the literature, and she is discerning in selecting the appropriate quotation. She is a fine and perceptive writer, whose lucid prose is inviting. And while this book is obviously aimed at an academic audience, the central themes Green addresses obviously touch the lives of all citizens." - Patrick Keeney, PROSPERO, Volume 17, number 3