Understanding school-NGO partnerships
| Date | 08 July 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-03-2019-0053 |
| Published date | 08 July 2019 |
| Pages | 322-328 |
| Author | Peter Sleegers |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
Understanding
school-NGO partnerships
Peter Sleegers
BMC Consultancy, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose –In the author’s reflection on the special issue, the author will start with a brief discussion of the
different theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions of the articles. In addition, the author will
argue that the challenge for research on school–non-governmental organization (NGO) interactions is to move
beyond the use of a myriad of conceptual models to a more coherent framework to better understand what
system and nonsystem actors do, how they do it and how the broader institutional system enables or
constrains collective action. The author concludes with some suggestions for future research. The paper aims
to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach –In this paper, the author reflects on the design and findings of articles
that focus on the involvement of non-governmental or third sector organizations in education.
Findings –By taking up these different themes, the articles reported in this special issue help the author to
get a better picture of the growing plurality and power of third sector organizations and their interactions
with schools. The work also raises questions about the legitimacy of NGOs in education, the weakening of
democratic control over public schooling and the possible role of private interests and the concentration of
power in facilitating equal opportunities for all students and promoting educational excellence. Given their
methodological designs, the studies make an important contribution to our understanding of what nonsystem
actors do and how they interact with schools.
Research limitations/implications –By using a neoinstitutional framework, the research on school–NGO
interactions will be informed by a coherent conceptual framework that conceives school systems as open systems
and focuses on the intersection of instruction and organization, while simultaneously treating the system as the
relevant unit of analysis (see Cohen et al., 2018). The works of Glazer et al. and Peurach et al. reported in this special
issue are good examples of the kind of research that is needed. Following this work, future studies into the
involvement of third sector organizations in education using a neoinstitutinal lens should give careful attention to
historical analysis and also need to examine changes over a longer period of time as new institutionalized patterns
do not emerge quickly and “interact with the hand of history in shaping instruction”(Peurach et al., p. 25).
Practical implications –The articles in this special issue may prompt more researchers to inquire
school–NGO interactions and push future research efforts to understand the complex picture of increasing
institutional diversity from a more neoinstitutional perspective. Findings from these cross-national studies, with
careful attention to historical analysis of the intersection between organization and instruction, may help the
author to develop a theory of design (Rowan and Miskel, 1999) that can provide practitioners with tools to redesign
and change the regulative, normative and cognitive mechanisms that constrain and enable collective action.
Originality/value –Different studies have examined how policy decisions emerge and are implemented,
and how this affects the “technical core”of schools (Cohen and Hill, 2001; Hiebert et al., 2005). However, most
of these studies have predominantly focused on the vertical interactions between formal system actors at the
state, district and school levels to analyze how policy decisions are shaped as they move through the
multilayered system. Little attention has been paid to the horizontal exchange relations between the public
policy system and NGOs and how these connections influence management and instruction (Coburn, 2005;
Rowan, 2006). Given the increasing institutional diversity, conflicting trends and dilemmas school systems
are faced with, scholars have emphasized the need to develop an understanding of the role the educational
infrastructure can play in supporting improvement (Cohen and Moffitt, 2010; Cohen et al., 2018).
Keywords School reform, Educational policy
Paper type Viewpoint
Introduction
Since the 1990s, educational policy aimed to bring systematic reform to educational
governance, the increased demand for accountability and the growing marketization in
education have altered the institutional reality of education worldwide (Cohen et al., 2018;
Yemini et al., 2018). In addition to social actors that are part of the formal system of policy
and governance (e.g. state agencies, district offices and school administration), so-called
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 57 No. 4, 2019
pp. 322-328
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-03-2019-0053
Received 29 March 2019
Revised 19 April 2019
Accepted 19 April 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
322
JEA
57,4
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