Understanding the reorganization of secondary schooling: a political games approach

Abstract

This paper focuses on the reorganization of secondary education in a small town in England. It conceptualizes the six headteachers of the secondary schools in the town, and the Director of Education, as social actors, or players, engaged in transactional games situations during that reorganization, and shows that the political changes which transformed the public sector education provision also created the conditions in which such games can flourish. The theoretical underpinning of the research is outlined, and the reorganisation is interpreted as seven concurrent transactional games played within the boundaries of a limiting political framework. A detailed ethnographic explanation of one of the games is then used to illustrate and explain the social interactions of the players as they competed for professional and personal prizes on up to four different stages. Access to power, which derived from political structures at the national and local levels, was a key requirement in securing prizes. Power was differentially distributed between the players, and some of the changes which occurred during the timespan of the reorganization had the potential to alter each player's access to power. This offered the possibility of changing the games and altering the prizes.