Governments, markets, and instruction: considerations for cross-national research
| Pages | 393-410 |
| Published date | 08 July 2019 |
| Date | 08 July 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-09-2018-0172 |
| Author | Donald J. Peurach,David K. Cohen,James P. Spillane |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
Governments, markets, and
instruction: considerations for
cross-national research
Donald J. Peurach and David K. Cohen
School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, and
James P. Spillane
School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston,
Illinois, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships among governmental organizations,
non-governmental organizations and the organization and management of instruction in US public education,
with the aim of raising issues for cross-national research among countries in which the involvement of
non-governmental organizations is increasing.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper is structured in four parts: an historical analysis of the
architecture and dynamics of US public education; an analysis of contemporary reform efforts seeking to
improve quality and reduce inequities; an analysis of ways that legacy and reform dynamics manifest in two
US public school districts; and a discussion of considerations for cross-national research.
Findings –In US public education, dependence on non-governmental organizations for instructional
resources and services is anchored in deeply institutionalized social, political and economic values dating to
the country’s founding and that continue to function as constraints on educational reform, such that new
solutions always emerge in-and-from the same problematic conditions that they seek to redress. The
consequence is that reform takes on an evolutionary (vs transformative) character.
Research limitations/implications –The US case provides a foundation for framing issues for cross-
national research comparing among macro-level educational infrastructures, patterns of instructional
organization and classroom instruction.
Originality/value –Such research would move beyond reductionist approaches to cross-national research
toward new approaches that examine how histories, legacy architectures, contemporary reforms and patterns
of instructional organization and management interact to shape students’day-to-day lives in classrooms.
Keywords Instructional improvement, Education governance, Education markets, Education systems,
Educational infrastructure, Instructional organization and management
Paper type Research paper
Increasing involvement of non-governmental organizations in public education in many
countries has raised many questions for researchers about possible implications for
students’educational experiences in classrooms (Kolleck, 2017; Yemini, 2017). The broad
scope of these questions is made clear in this special issue on “Understanding Third Sector
Participation in Public Schooling through Partnerships, Collaborations, Alliances, and
Entrepreneurialism”(e.g. Eyal and Berkovich, 2019; Kolleck, 2019; Tamir et al., 2019).
While on the rise globally, deep involvement of non-governmental organizations in
public education has long been the status quo in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to
examine relationships among governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations
and the organization and management of instruction in US public education, with the aim of
raising issues for cross-national research among countries in which the involvement of
non-governmental organizations is increasing[1]. The paper is structured in four parts:
•an historical analysis of the architecture and dynamics of US public education,
focusing on relationships among governments, markets and instructional organization
and management;
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 57 No. 4, 2019
pp. 393-410
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-09-2018-0172
Received 17 September 2018
Revised 5 January 2019
1 February 2019
4 February 2019
Accepted 5 February 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
393
Governments,
markets, and
instruction
•an analysis of contemporary reform efforts advanced within the established
architecture that aim to improve educational quality and reduce disparities;
•an analysis illustrating ways that both legacy and reform dynamics manifest in
efforts to organize and manage instruction in two different types of US public school
districts; and
•a discussion of considerations for cross-national research examining the involvement
of non-governmental organizations in public education.
Historical context: the architecture and dynamics of US public education
A distinguishing feature of US public education is its dependence on non-governmental
organizations as primary providers of resources and services supporting its core
educational activity: classroom instruction. This dependence has historical roots in social,
political and economic values that drove the establishment and growth of the US as a
country, and, consequently, US public education. By the mid-1900s, this dependence was
also bound up in a dominant pattern of instructional organization and management that
contributed to low-quality and inequitable educational opportunities and outcomes for
many students.
Architecture of the US public education enterprise
From the colonial era through the mid-1900s, US public schooling grew from a niche
enterprise for white boys to a mass enterprise that assured universal access to children from
ages 5 to 18 (Katznelson and Weir, 1985). While the rise of mass public schooling was tied to
the establishment of a functional democracy, industrialization, urbanization and mass
immigration, it was tied especially tightly to the association of public education with social
equality (Peurach et al., 2019). In the mid-1800s, this association drove a “common school
movement”that sought equal access for boys and girls and comparable quality among
urban and rural schools (Kaestle, 1983). In the mid-1900s, this association drove social
movements, policy movements and court decisions that established as a national priority
the assurance of access to public schooling for all students regardless of gender, religion,
race, ethnicity, social class and/or disability[2].
Yet ambitions for universal access to public schooling emerged and evolved in a country
borne of revolution against a strong central government fueled by mercantilism. With that,
the USA was established on a design for limited central government at the federal and state
levels, with power distributed among legislative, administrative and judicial branches and
with formidable responsibility for public affairs left to regional and municipal governments.
It was also established with a dependence on entrepreneurship, firms, markets and
competition as drivers of both wealth and social progress.
This fundamental government–market architecture was mirrored in the emergence
and evolution of mass public schooling. Dating to the colonial era, public education
emerged as the province of communities (and not central governments), in the form of
individual schools supported by local funding. In the early 1800s,responsibility for public
education began shifting to local, geographically defined units of government called
public school districts. Operating under elected boards and supported by local taxes,
district central offices were responsible for creating and operating local schools in accord
with local values, aspirations and funding commitments (Gamson and Hodge, 2016;
Tyack, 2002). With the expansion of mass public schooling, local public school districts
evolved to take a conventional form, with neighborhood elementary schools feeding area
middle schools that then fed comprehensive high schools. Schools were differentiated
internally by age grades and (in middle and high schools) academic subjects; by
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