Restructuring of Administrative Policies in Australian and New Zealand State School Education Systems: Implications for Practice, Theory and Research

Abstract

The administrative policies in the state school systems of New Zealand and Australia have undergone radical changes in recent years. Research into the origins and patterns of the reforms, their progress and problems encountered, shows that the holistic reforms were intended to achieve higher levels of economic efficiency, educational effectiveness and political quiescence. Two major restructuring strategies are identified, the corporatisation and the politicisation of educational administration. These purposes and strategies are found to cohere with a neo‐pluralist theory of state. A provisional theory of systemic restructuring is developed comprising a Gestalt of three realms: the existential, the social and the material. Three questions for further research are posed. Why have Australian state education ministers and their chief executives been developing new national structures rather than waiting for their restructure of state systems to deliver reforms? What are the origins and dynamics of administrative policy myths? To what extent can a centralist corporate managerialism cohere with a philosophy of educative leadership?