Consultants and Consultancy: the Case of Education

170 Pages·2017·1.54 MB·English

by  Helen M. Gunter

Educational Governance Research 4
Helen M. Gunter
Colin Mills
Consultants and
Consultancy:
the Case of
Education
Educational Governance Research
Volume 4
SeriesEditors
LejfMoos,AarhusUniversity,Copenhagen,Denmark
StephenCarney,RoskildeUniversity,Roskilde,Denmark
EditorialAdvisoryBoard
HerbertAltrichter,UniversityofLinz,Austria
StephenJ.Ball,InstituteofEducation,London,England
Y.C.Chen,HongKongInstituteofEducation,HongKong
NeilDempster,GriffithUniversity,Australia
OlofJohansson,UmeåUniversity,Sweden
GitaSteinerKhamsi,ColumbiaUniversity,USA
KlausKasperKofod,AarhusUniversity,Denmark
Jan Merok Paulsen, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Science,
Oslo,Norway
JamesP.Spillane,NorthwestUniversity,Chicago,USA
MichaelUljens,ÅboAkademiUniversity,Finland
Educational Governance Research
AimsandScope
Thisseriespresentsrecentinsightsineducationalgovernancegainedfromresearch
that focuses on the interplay between educational institutions and societies and
markets. Education is not an isolated sector. Educational institutions at all levels
are embedded in and connected to international, national and local societies and
markets.Oneneedstounderstandgovernancerelationsandthechangesthatoccur
ifoneistounderstandtheframeworks,expectations,practice,roomformanoeuvre,
and the relations between professionals, public, policy makers and market place
actors.
The aim of this series is to address issues related to structures and discourses
bywhichauthorityisexercisedinanaccessiblemanner.Itwillpresentfindingson
a variety of types of educational governance: public, political and administrative,
as well as private, market place and self-governance. International and multidisci-
plinary in scope, the series will cover the subject area from both a worldwide and
local perspective and will describe educational governance as it is practised in all
partsoftheworldandinallsectors:state,market,andNGOs.
Theseries:
– Coversabroadrangeoftopicsandpowerdomains
– Positionsitselfinafieldbetweenpoliticsandmanagement/leadership
– Providesaplatformforthevividfieldofeducationalgovernanceresearch
– Looksintowaysinwhichauthorityistransformedwithinchainsofeducational
governance
– Uncoversrelationsbetweenstate,privatesectorandmarketplaceinfluenceson
education,professionalsandstudents.
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/13077
Helen M. Gunter • Colin Mills
Consultants and Consultancy:
the Case of Education
123
HelenM.Gunter ColinMills
TheManchesterInstituteofEducation TheManchesterInstituteofEducation
UniversityofManchester UniversityofManchester
Manchester,UK Manchester,UK
ISSN2365-9548 ISSN2365-9556 (electronic)
EducationalGovernanceResearch
ISBN978-3-319-48877-6 ISBN978-3-319-48879-0 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-48879-0
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016961942
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2017
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Foreword
Since the 1980s onwards in the UK, schools and universities have been seen as
laggingbehindandneedingtobemoreefficientandeffectiveiftheyaretodelivera
world-classeducationsystemforthenation’seconomicandsocialwell-being.Over
this extended period, governments of different political persuasions have alleged
thateducationisfailing.Drawingonneoliberalandglobalpolicyimperatives,ithas
been claimed that the market knows best and that business imperatives will solve
theseproblems.Oneoutcomehasbeentheemergenceofnewalliancesbetweenthe
state and the private sector and the rise of a new type of policy actor. This book
exposes the ways in which the logic of privatisation is evident in settings where
governmentsturntoconsultantsandconsultancytosolvetheso-callededucational
‘crisis’.
Helen Gunter and Colin Mills detail the ways in which attempts at ‘problem-
solving’ have been underpinned by moves to privatise public services through
the deployment of external expertise that has to be purchased. Consultants and
Consultancy: The Case of Education spells out the ways in which these concerns
have led to a growth in the influence of consultancy, consultants, and the allied
processesofconsultationandconsulting(whattheauthorscallthe‘4Cs’).Anytrust
inthecapacityofeducationalists,schools,andteacherstoreformandimprovethe
service to which they have brought their professional expertise is sidelined by the
problem-solvingskillsandbusinessacumenoftheconsultant.Consultantsaremade
up of people with different expertise and backgrounds. Some come from major
companies; others are educational professionals who move into consultancy. The
book explores who these people are and why they do this work. This book also
dealswithhowandwhythe‘4Cs’havebecomeubiquitousandwhatthismeansfor
educationprovision.WhilethefocusiswiththeEnglishcontext,thebookprovides
a set of analytic tools and theoretical strategies for examining the ‘4Cs’ wherever
theyoccur.
Thisisthefirst‘majorinvestigationandintegratedmappingapproach’(p.7)that
deals with the ‘4Cs’ in the public sector although there have been some studies
of consultants and consultancy in the private sector. While many researchers and
certainlymanyeducationalistsareawareofthegrowthoftheconsultancyindustry,
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vi Foreword
this book is the first systematic approach towards analysing this dimension of
education provision. The book draws on a wealth of empirical data collected by
bothauthorsfromasetofresearchprojectsfundedbyvariousUKresearchcouncils.
Attheheartofthisbookareoveronehundredin-depthinterviewsconductedwith
policyactorsinvolveddirectlyinthe‘4Cs’industry.
This book is about how consultancy works in practice in education settings.
It contains an original approach towards an under-researched area and makes a
substantial contribution to critical policy analysis. Gunter and Mills develop and
sustain a compelling account of the complex, shifting, and at times contradictory
elements involved in processes that span from being a ‘critical friend’ to schools
to taking over core services in education provision. The book reviews a range of
consultancyexperiencesintheEnglishsettingandconcludesthatwhatcharacterises
allconsultancyandconsultationprocessesisapolicyentrepreneurialdisposition.
One of the strengths of this book lies in the way it draws on a wide range of
theoreticalapproachesinordertoteaseoutandrendervisiblesomeofthenuanced
waysinwhichconsultancyandconsultantswork.Itdemonstratesthewaysinwhich
the ‘4Cs’ industry is constructed and illustrates how the logic of consultation is
sustained. In doing this, Helen Gunter and Colin Mills provide a coherent set
of conceptual tools and frameworks that will enable other policy analysists in
other settings to undertake similar projects. Another strength of the book is that it
‘troubles’andexposesthewaysinwhicheducationgovernanceisbeingconfigured
through the work of consultants. In the last part of the book, Gunter and Mills
argue that the privatisation and ‘corporatised learning’ (p. 192) that characterise
the consultancy trend are not inevitable and they point to spaces for alternative
possibilities.
This book will appeal to critical policy analysts, policymakers, academics,
educationalresearchers,andpractitioners.Itmakesanoriginalcontributiontowards
critical education policy studies and will hopefully inspire similar studies in other
internationalsettings.
SchoolofEducation,Communication&Society, MegMaguire
King’sCollegeLondon,UK
Acknowledgements
Theprojectsreportedinthisbookhavebeenundertakenaspartoftheprogramme
of research within the Critical Education Policy and Leadership research group in
theManchesterInstituteofEducation.Wearedeeplyindebtedtoourcolleagues:Dr
Paul Armstrong,Dr Steve Courtney, Professor David Hall,and Dr Ruth McGinity
for their collegiality and scholarship. Helen would particularly like to thank her
colleagues for their contribution to the writing of this book through their support
thatallowedhertohavesomestudyleave.
We would like to thank the funders of our projects: first, the British Academy
and Leverhulme Trust for the Consultancy and Knowledge Production in Educa-
tion (CKPE) project (SG121698); second, the ESRC for funding the Knowledge
Production in Educational Leadership (KPEL) project (RES-000-23-1192); and
third, the Consultancy and Literacy (CaL) project is based on a doctoral project
by Mills and is partly funded by the Manchester Institute of Education at the
University of Manchester. We would like to thank Joanna Bragg and Dr Gillian
Forrester who acted as research assistants on the CKPE and KPEL projects and
membersoftheProjectAdvisoryGroupfortheCKPEprojectwhovisitedthenorth
andgavewonderfulinsightsintoarapidlychangingsituationineducation:Alison
Elliott (head teacher), Dr Janet Harvey (consultant), Ian Potter (head teacher),
AssociateProfessorAndyTownsend(UniversityofNottingham),andLiamTrippier
(consultant).
Wewouldliketothankthosewhohaveworkedwithusondatacollection.Our
respondentshavebeenverygenerouswiththeirtimeandhaveopeneduptheirlife
stories,andwearedeeplygratefultothemfortheirsupportandtheircandour.Many
miles have been travelled in order to capture their stories and to witness them at
work. We are very appreciative of the access that has allowed us to put on record
theradicalchangesthatcolleaguesarewitnessingandexperiencing.
We have examined these stories in relation to day-to-day practice and located
them within the bigger picture of changes to the state, economy, and politics. We
are deeply implicated in these changes ourselves, and so we are mindful of the
challengesofhowprimaryresearchisbeingshapedbyeconomisingstructures.We
are seeking to make this public and to ensure that important changes to what it
vii
viii Acknowledgements
meanstobeaprofessionalandtoworkwithinandforpubliceducationarenotlost.
Weareworkingatatimewhenourprofessionalknowledgeisbeingtakenfromus,
and as scholarly activists, our task is to map this, name it, and enable the critical
realitiesofwhatthismeanstostayontheagenda.Indoingso,weareindebtedtoa
rangeofpeoplewhogiveusintellectualnourishment,butwetakefullresponsibility
forwhatwehavewritten.Weseethisasabeginningratherthanthecompletionof
ourproject.
Manchester,UK HelenM.Gunter
May2016 ColinMills
Contents
1 ConsultantsandConsultancyinEducation............................... 1
Introduction.................................................................... 1
Consultants,Consulting,ConsultationandConsultancy.................... 3
Governingandthe4Cs........................................................ 7
AnchoringtheBook........................................................... 14
PartI ConsultantsandConsultancyinAction
2 CorporateConsultantsinGlobalCompanies............................. 19
Introduction.................................................................... 19
Who?........................................................................... 20
What?.......................................................................... 23
Meanings? ..................................................................... 28
Summary....................................................................... 31
3 ResearchersasConsultantsinandoutsideofUniversities.............. 33
Introduction.................................................................... 33
Who?........................................................................... 34
What?.......................................................................... 39
Means?......................................................................... 42
Summary....................................................................... 45
4 ProfessionalsasConsultantsinandoutsideofCompanies.............. 47
Introduction.................................................................... 47
Who?........................................................................... 48
What?.......................................................................... 51
Meanings? ..................................................................... 54
Summary....................................................................... 58
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