School Autonomy – A Scientific Term, Politically Used as an Umbrella Concept

Author(s):

Gabriela Gartmann(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 01 D, Media and Education Policy Making (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 23 SES 02 D

Time:

2016-08-23

13:15-14:45

Room:

NM-J110

Chair:

Ecem Karlidag

Contribution

The present paper reports the findings of an analysis of school autonomy (redistributing decision making powers and responsibilities in the Austrian school system) in the public discussion of the daily press. It discusses the implications of the findings while considering and comparing different concepts of school autonomy in political party programs and position papers as well as the actual international state of educational research on school autonomy (e.g. Altrichter, Brauckmann, Lassnigg, Moosbrugger & Gartmann, 2016; Gartmann, 2015).

International scientific discourse claims predominantly that decisions about educational reforms should be evidence based (or at least informed). It is less considered that educational policy makers also have to take into account public opinions as well as their own political interests, in order to estimate the reception of and the support for the reforms (by population, political opponents and certain interest groups). In a field such as (school) education, which is currently intensively discussed in public and in the clash of different interests and ideologies, it is particularly important for policy makers to legitimize their own position and to strengthen their credibility (compare the analysis of PISA as an educational policy event by Tillmann, Dedering, Kneuper, Kuhlmann & Nessel, 2008). Therefore, this paper outlines the positions of the stakeholders of the current media discussion about school autonomy in Austria by answering three questions:

Which conceptual contents and meanings of school autonomy are introduced into the public debate?
Which actors appear in the discourse, and what specific interpretation of school autonomy do they represent?
Which superordinate argumentation patterns and structures show up in the discourse?

Subsequently it turns out that the logic of political debate and public communication characterizes the public media debate on school autonomy in a systematic way. School autonomy is approved in principle and entails mostly positive associations. But it is rarely specified and if so, with some highly contradictory or unclear aspects. In this way school autonomy is propagated as a solution to different problems in the education systems. This paper shows how this scientific term, used as an umbrella concept, provides policy makers in the public debate with a projection screen to beam their different socio-political ideas on, while suggesting that they all talk about the same problem-solving approach to current educational issues. Known mechanisms of media impact, such as framing and theming effects (e.g. Batinic & Appel, 2008), are taken into account for the interpretation and discussion of the findings.

Method

The analysis considered N= 240 articles from Austrian newspapers from the period of 01.01.2013 to 30.07.2015. The topic of “school autonomy” has been present almost throughout and with an upward trend in the public media. According to the criteria of nationwide outreach and the coverage of different socio-political orientations and educational backgrounds of the readers two quality newspapers and two tabloids were selected (Der Standard, Die Presse, Kronen Zeitung, Heute). The search of newspaper articles was carried out by means of dynamic tag chain (“school autonomy” or a combination of “autonomy” and “school”, “education reform”, “school administration” or “school reform”) in the database WISO and on the websites of the respective newspapers. A full survey was attempted. The media analysis was based on a combination of elements of Grounded Theory (Strübing, 2004) and Discursive Psychology (Willig, 2003). The method of constant comparing was applied to all newspaper articles. Coding as a process of development of theoretical concepts and categories was used to generate conceptual representativeness of the results. Elements of Discursive Psychology were applied to analyze metaphors and meanings related to school autonomy, as well as the possible consequences of the discourse for the involved participants. This approach allowed both the detection of the autonomy concepts of the actors and to build a theory about argumentation patterns and structures which dominate the discourse. This methodological approach makes it possible that the results can be understood and discussed in relation to scientific and political discourses.

Expected Outcomes

1. Conceptual contents and meanings of school autonomy in public media discourse: A comprehensive, even scientifically based concept of school autonomy cannot be found among the analyzed newspaper articles. The statements are often extremely scarce, vague and refer only to single, narrow aspects of school autonomy. You can find almost all aspects known from the scientific discussion, but they are "scattered" across all newspaper articles and not related. Some aspects that apply in scientific discourse as elements of school autonomy are partly not interpreted in media discourse as such, and some converse aspects that are downright contradictory to the scientific concept are added. The present study gives an overview of the contents of the medial concept of school autonomy. The concept has mostly positive connotations and is advocated by the actors. 2. Actors in the discourse and their specific interpretation / concept of school autonomy: Politically motivated groups of actors dominate the discourse. In a systematic overview the media content regarding school autonomy concepts of political parties, the federal government and the interest groups is displayed. 3. Superordinate argumentation patterns and structures in the discourse: The argumentation of the actors can be divided into three levels, according to their degree of differentiation (and thus the degree of freedom for the interpretation of the reader): keyword, rough definition of partial aspects, detailed explanation. School autonomy is barely discussed in isolation but in the context of current educational topics and events. Goals that are pursued by school autonomy vary between actors and the forecasted effects differ. Actors represent their own interests. They want to maintain or increase their areas of competence, maneuver and power position. Scientific findings and comparisons with other countries are sometimes used to support the arguments but play a rather subordinate role.

References

Altrichter, H., Brauckmann, S., Lassnigg, L., Moosbrugger, R. & Gartmann, G. B. (2016). Schulautonomie oder die Verteilung von Entscheidungsrechten und Verantwortlichkeiten im Schulsystem. In M. Bruneforth et al. (eds.). Nationaler Bildungsbericht Österreich 2015. Bd. 2. Graz: Leykamp (im Ersch.) Batinic, B., & Appel, M. (2008). Medienpsychologie. Heidelberg: Springer. Corbin, J., Strauss, A. (1990). Grounded theory research: procedures, canons and evaluative criteria. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 19, 418-427. Gartmann, G. B. (2015). Schulautonomie! Welche Schulautonomie? Unv. Vorstudie zum Nationalen Bildungsbericht Österreich 2015. Johannes Kepler Universität Linz. Herkner, W. (2004). Lehrbuch Sozialpsychologie. (2. Auflage). Bern u. a.: Huber Strübing, J. (2004). Grounded Theory: Zur sozialtheoretischen und epistemologischen Fundierung des Verfahrens der empirisch begründeten Theoriebildung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Tillmann, K.-J., Dedering, K., Kneuper, D., Kuhlmann, C., Nessel, I. (2008): PISA als bildungspolitisches Ereignis. Oder: Wie weit trägt das Konzept der „evaluationsbasierten Steuerung?“ In: Brüsemeister, T., Eubel, K. D. (eds.). Evaluation, Wissen und Nichtwissen. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 117-140. Willig, C. (2003). Discourse analysis. In: Smith, J.A. (Hrsg.). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London: Sage, 159-183.

Author Information

Gabriela Gartmann (presenting / submitting)

Johannes Kepler Universität Linz

Linz

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