School Administrators’ perceptions of school conversion and the Academies Act 2010: A case study of one secondary school in Northern England (Published)

The study explored the perception of school administrators regarding the academization of schools which were initiated in 2000 in the UK. Since then this initiative allowed the government to force schools deemed to be failing to be partnered with sponsors and freeing the schools from their Local Education Authorities (LEAs).  Some high performing schools were turned to converter academies but without the need of sponsors which later recruited other schools that were deemed to be failing to form multi-academy trusts (MATs). And the main objective of sponsored academies and MATs was to increase the performance of the lower-performance schools influenced by neo-liberal practices so that they are operated as business-like. The research utilised case study methodology — interpretivist approach — and interviews to collect data.  The sample included two senior management members from a sponsored academy in a MAT. The findings revealed that the changes and impacts of being converted to an academy were largely attributed to leadership rather than to MAT. Thus, questioning the overall effectiveness of the academy programme by the school administrators. Furthermore, implementing changes that are neo-liberal in nature did compromise achieving Keynesian values and such interventions were questioned for their effectiveness by the school leaders.

Keywords: Keynesian system, Neo-Liberalism, academy act