The neoliberal think tank FAES and the OECD. Hidden forms of privatisation in the Spanish educational reform

Author(s):

Geo Saura(presenting / submitting)Julián Luengo(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 06 B, Globalization, Privatizations and Neo-Liberal Reforms in Education (Part 1)

Paper Session: to be continued in 23 SES 07 B

Time:

2014-09-03

15:30-17:00

Room:

B332 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Anna Tsatsaroni

Contribution

This paper examines some characteristics of the global education reforms which are being developed in most regions. As an exponent, Spain is implementing a new education reform act (LOMCE). The research will analyze some mechanisms of hidden privatisation in the Spanish educational system. We will also explore the new actors that promote these discourses of privatisation.Around the world,education policies with similar speeches, new public management, performance management, accountability actions, news forms of privatisation, public-private partnerships or performance-related pay are being introduced around the world. Perhaps education policy transfers could be thought of as being like the movement of ‘policy epidemic’ (Levin, 1998). These tendencies towards the change of the policy are having major influences, in different ways, on public education systems in countries across the globe. The global education reform movement (Sahlberg, 2011) describes a new form of market competition and educational standardisation in which professional autonomy is replaced by the ideals of efficiency, productivity, and rapid service delivery. These various forms are being discussed and implemented to the point that they have obtained the status of ‘global education polices’ (Verger, Novelli y Altinyelken, 2012). The new processes of public services are characterizing the movement of global education policies. It is a new measure that is changing the ethos of education. As Ball and Youdell (2008, p. 8-9) point out, “privatisation in public education or endogenous, are such forms or privatisation involve the importing of ideas, techniques and practices from the private sector in order to make the public sector more like business and more business-like”.

A consequence of this process is the restructuration of the states. This paper examines the state as a social relation, it should be seen involves a form-determined condensation of the changing balance of forces (Jessop, 2002). State power is the sum of a ‘balance of forces as this is institutionally mediated through the state apparatus with its structurally inscribed strategic selectivity’ (Jessop, 2002, p. 40). This situation is producing the reconfiguration of a new model of the state. This process is a medium to create new policies, where multiples actors and organisations are being established through particular discourses and truths, new power relations influencing the state. These are ‘new policy assemblages with a diverse range of participants which exist in a new kind of policy space somewhere between multilateral agencies, national governments, NGOs, think tanks and advocacy groups’ (Ball, 2012, p.10).

Method

This paper uses a methodology process in a dual dimension. On the one hand, we present the new process of privatisation in the Spanish educational system. This perspective analyses the linguistic style in the educational reform, as a process to promote new knowledge and new identities in public service (Fairclough, 2008). This paper explores the new reform in the Spanish educational system, as a result of dominant discourses and narratives. These forms of privatisation are being officially recognized through discourses to legitimize truths (Foucault, 1988). On the other hand, the paper presents the new actors who create policies. As Olmedo & Santa Cruz point out, “new players are arising and hybrid spaces are being created that blur the responsibilities and boundaries of what is being traditionally understood as the public sphere” (2013, p.476). From this perspective, we examine the effects that new players are occupying on the development of ideological agendas. The analysis of roles occupied by organisations and think tanks is an important tool to describe new power relations. We explore fundamentally organisations’ websites, academic papers, books and newspaper articles. This fraction analyses the discourses and ideological perspective promoted by two actors. The first actor is the Spanish neoliberal think tank Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis (FAES). The second actor is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Expected Outcomes

The new reform in the educational system incorporates different mechanisms of privatisation in the public system, by adopting ideas, techniques and practices from the private sector in order to convert the education sector more like business. The LOMCE establishes three different policy technologies. As Ball affirms (2007, p. 24), ‘three different policy technologies were brought to bear upon and within the public sector’ (markets, new public management and performativivy culture). FAES, the principal active neoliberal foundation in Spain illustrates the role of Spanish think tanks in the construction of ‘circuits of influence and policy advocacy’ in the reform of public education (Olmedo & Santa Cruz, 2013). FAES is a leading think tank committed to nurturing the political ideas and activities of the liberal and reformist centre. This foundation is chaired by Jose María Aznar, Prime Minister of Spain from 1996-2004. As proclaimed in its narrative (FAES, 2013): Its aim is to create, promote and spread ideas based on political, intellectual and economic freedom. Ideas capable of offering political alternatives to socialism and different ways of thinking. Ideas which can be adopted and turned into programmes of political activity by those in positions of political responsibility. The OECD, with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a new model of governance in education. Lingard, Martino and Rezai-Rashti point out (2013, p. 540) that the OECD is ‘a form of global panopticism, with the global eye functioning in a regulatory capacity across and within national states’. For that same reason, Novoa (2010) describes that the state is configured as ‘governing without government’ or ‘steering at a distance’. For instance, the current Spanish Minister of Education (Council of Ministers, 2012) affirms that the reform is the best way to improve the ‘very mediocre and unequal results obtained in the PISA education rankings’.

References

Ball, S. J. (2007). Education plc: understanding private sector participation in public sector education. New York: Routledge. Ball, S. J. (2012). Global Education Inc. New policy networks and the neo-liberal imaginary. London and New York: Routledge. Ball, S. J. and Youdell, D. (2008). Hidden privatisation in public education. http://download.ei-ie.org/docs/IRISDocuments/Research%20Website%20Documents/2009-00034-01-E.pdf Council of Ministers (2012). http://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/IDIOMAS/9/Gobierno/CouncilMinisters/2012/20120921_CouncMins.htm FAES (2013). http://www.fundacionfaes.org/en/presentation Fairclough, N. (2008). Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge. Foucault, M. (1971). L'ordre du discours. Paris: Gallimard. Jessop, B. (2002). The future of the capitalist state. Cambridge: Policy. Levin, B. (1998). An Epidemic of Education Policy: (wath) Can we Learn from Each Other? Comparative Education, 34 (2), 131-141. Lingard, B.; Martino, W. and Rezai-Rashti, G. (2013). Testing regimes, accountabilities and education policy: commensurate global and national developments. Journal of Education Policy, 28 (5), 539-556. Novoa, A. (2010). Governing without governing: the formation of a European educational space. In The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education, M. Apple; S.J. Ball and L. A. Gandin (eds.), 264-273. London and New York: Routledge. Olmedo, A. and Santa Cruz, E. (2013). Neoliberalism, policy advocacy networks and think tanks in the Spanish educational arena: The case of FAES. Education Inquiry, 4 (3) 473-496. Sahlberg, P. (2011b). The Fourth Way of Finland. Journal of Educational Change, 12 (2) 173-184. Verger, A.; Novelli, M. and Altinyelken, H. K. (2012). Global Education Policy and International Development: An Introductory Framework. In Verger, A., M. Novelli and H. K. Altinyelken (eds). Global Education Policy and International Development: New Agendas, Issues and Policies. London: Continuum.

Author Information

Geo Saura (presenting / submitting)

University of Granada

Pedagogy

Granada

Julián Luengo (presenting)

University of Granada, Spain

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