Educational Governance Through Outcomes Steering: ‘Reforms that Deform’

This briefing paper addresses an issue–the use of so-called neoliberal governance approaches–that is often taken for granted in Scottish education and which merits greater critical attention. We start by explaining the context and identifying the various methodologies. We then outline some of the critiques that have been aimed at these methodologies, focusing on the concrete effects of the approaches on education practices and institutions, as well as upon the individuals–teacher and students–situated within the system. The final section of the paper reports on some small scale research–data generated by a focus group of teachers–which highlighted some practitioner views on the practices in question.