'Stepping' into the future: new forms of organisation in the primary school

Abstract

This article argues that central government policies are impacting on the primary school in complex ways and one result is the emergence of a new type of in‐school organisation. Using data from an ethnographic study of one English primary school, the responses of the headteacher to a turbulent external policy and market environment are explored. The headteacher's reaction to changing external conditions included downsizing the staff and introducing a new form of organisation, the ‘step’ system, which necessitated restructuring staff deployment. The restructured organisation created new teacher roles with which to introduce curriculum change, retrain the teachers and monitor and evaluate the new initiatives. This required a new type of flexible and collaborative primary teacher to train and supervise colleagues in their changed work. The article concludes by locating this new mode of organisation in organisation theory. It is considered to be a ‘manipulative’ rather than ‘moving mosaic’.