Glenys J. Woods

Academy schools and entrepreneurialism in education

The academy schools programme in England is presented by Government as the means by which increased diversity and private participation in the provision of public education can be used to solve educational and wider social problems. The entrepreneurial features of academy schools are examined, through a study of the sponsors and the ethos, values and specialisms of academies. Data on 58 academies (open or in development), gathered from secondary sources, are analysed. Four types of entrepreneurialism are used to review the findings and it is found that business entrepreneurialism strongly features as a normalising presence, with forms of cultural and social entrepreneurialism also apparent. Public entrepreneurialism is represented but is less evident than the other forms. The emerging pattern of participation in the academies programme suggests that existing structural advantages in the fields of business and the church are being replicated and strengthened, and so academies are predominantly being constructed as sites intended to enhance the growing influence of private versions of entrepreneurialism. It is also recognised, however, that academies represent an unfolding programme and that how it develops over time is subject to complex national and local factors, including the agency of groups and individuals differently positioned in their fields.

The "Bigger Feeling": The Importance of Spiritual Experience in Educational Leadership.

This article reports findings from a study of headteachers and spirituality. It is intended to give some insight into the importance of spiritual experience as a phenomenon which enables leaders to be better resourced internally and find deeper meaning, and to provide evidence of the significance and influence of spiritual experience for educational leadership in schools. The study draws on survey and interview data from secondary and primary headteachers in three local education authorities in England.

Pathways To Learning: Deepening Reflective Practice To Explore Democracy, Connectedness, and Spirituality

In this chapter, we discuss some of the issues that arise from a consideration of the alternatives featured in the book. Specifically, the chapter addresses the positioning of alternatives, the different meanings and implications that the concept of alternatives can have, and questions of power bound up in it; articulates the value of diversity and difference in school systems, and the importance of cooperative practice; and sets out a framework of features, formulated as a result of our review of the alternatives, which characterizes educational settings that have a developmentally democratic character and strive to be inclusive, open to alternatives, and capable of nurturing rounded physical, spiritual, emotional, cognitive, ethical, and social development in students.