School leadership and ‘language games’ in neoliberal times: A critical ethnographic case study of the Independent Public School policy in Western Australia

This thesis is a critical policy ethnography (CPE) of school leaders in three low socio-economic indicator (SEI) government schools in Western Australia (WA) that have achieved Independent Public School (IPS) status under the state’s IPS policy. It draws on the stories of school leaders to understand the logics, processes, and tensions they experience in enacting this policy maneuver, and how it is negotiated and resolved at the school level (Ball, 2003). The introduction of WA’s IPS policy occurs in the context of a distinct and well-documented shift in the ideological forces driving education policy in the Western world. Such a shift has resulted in the ascendancy of neoliberalism as the dominant discourse within government education policy formation. Further, this shift is clearly evident in responses provided by the school leaders throughout this thesis. Central to this thesis is the argument that independent or autonomous government schools are part of what Lyotard (1984) terms ‘language games.’ These language games occur within a broader set of neoliberal discourses driven by the idea of ‘homo economicus,’ which governs the ways in which individuals conceive of themselves and society. Such a reconceptualization of homo economicus represents an elemental disruption of democracy as individuals within the neoliberal language game strategize for themselves (Dilts, 2011). The use of CPE provides an opportunity to locate the daily experiences of school leaders in the context of these broader ideological shifts as it relates to the enactment of the IPS policy at three school sites. Ethnography also allows an anthropological approach to the study through seeking to describe participants’ actions, intentions, motives, and reasons. In selecting this particular methodological approach, the voices of participants are given center stage. CPE is a methodology that critically examines the ways in which official policy discourses constitute the lived realities of individuals. In this case, the formal school leadership is comprised of heads of learning areas, deputy principals and principals. The thesis makes a specific contribution to research by examining the broader effects of neoliberal language games through the enactment of the IPS policy in WA via a range of primary and secondary sources. In particular, it examines the effect of the enactment of the IPS policy from the perspective of school leaders in socially disadvantaged WA government high schools

Convivial Making: Power in Public Library Creative Places

In 2011, public libraries began to provide access to collaborative creative places, frequently called “makerspaces.” The professional literature portrays these as beneficial for communities and individuals through their support of creativity, innovation, learning, and access to high-tech tools such as 3D printers. As in longstanding “library faith” narratives, which pin the library’s existence to widely held values, makerspace rhetoric describes access to tools and skills as instrumental for a stronger economy or democracy, social justice, and/or individual happiness. The rhetoric generally frames these places as empowering. Yet the concept of power has been neither well-theorized within the library makerspace literature nor explored in previous studies. This study fills the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of power, as described by the stakeholders, including staff, trustees, and users of the library. Potentially, library creative places could be what Ivan Illich calls convivial tools: tools that manifest social relations involving equitable distributions of power and decision-making. A convivial tool ensures that users may decide to which end they would like to apply the tool, and thus are constitutive of human capabilities and social justice. However, the characterization of library makerspaces in the literature evokes a technologically deterministic entrepreneurialism that marginalizes many types of making, and reduces the power of individuals to choose the ends to which they put this tool. This multi-site ethnographic study seeks to unravel the currents of power within three public library creative places. Through participant observation, document analysis, and interviews, the study traces the mechanisms and processes by which power is distributed, as enacted by institutional practices—the spaces, policies, tools, and programs—or through individual practices. The study finds seven key tensions that coalesce around the concept of conviviality, and also reveals seven capabilities of convivial tools that the users and providers of these spaces identify as crucial to their successful and satisfying implementation. As a user-centered exploration of the interactions of power in a public institution, this study can benefit a range of organizations that aim to further inclusion, equity, and social justice