In the Greek political scene, nowadays "excellence" is a concept that plays a leading role in political debates and public discourse. The breadth and manner of using this concept as rhetoric and ideology make it a red threat to education. A populist discourse is being developed which the conservative forces have proclaimed as a panacea for the development of educational policies, while in contrast to that, from the so-called progressives there is a reservation regarding the real aims pursued by the politics of excellence. The conservative government produces policies in favour of the "excellents", while reservation and challenge by the opposition makes the last a "persecutor" of excellence.

The main reason of this ideological rivalry was the reform of the Model (Pilot) Public Schools in 2011 following EU standards (European Commission, 2000). With the 3966/2011 Law voted during the period of the economic crisis, they became selective schools, based on, inter alia, entrance examinations. There was also a strong mobility of alumni, parents, etc. which highlighted some informal networks, making their ‘secret’ target visible, namely a kind of privatisation of these public schools (Souto-Otero, 2015; Ball, 2007). However, this issue was linked to the broader social issues of equal opportunities and social justice which were not able to express specific educational policies. Thus, the plagues of school polarities found a populist ideological pole of "excellence" that almost penetrated the educational field and broader areas of social and political life too. The culmination of the ideological controversy over "excellence" took place when the SYRIZA government in May 2015 raised the issue of halting 55 Public Model Schools, allowing only 5 Historic ones to operate as such, owing to the status of the legacies of the 'national benefactors', as a springboard for promoting excellence.

It is interesting to mention some social historical landmarks in order to illuminate the socio-political coiling that highlights "excellence" as a major educational issue and renders it superior to other critical educational issues, such as inability to consensual school policy establishing a system for the entrance to higher education, failure to implement lucrative inclusive education of refugees and vulnerable social groups, inability to overcome the discomfort and frustration of teachers caused by lack of training and/or counseling support. Thus, our research work is also closely linked to the prominent features of the Greek education system operating in a volatile political landscape because of the prolonged economic crisis, having centralized and bureaucratic administrative structures and discontinuity in school policies (Sørensen & Torfing, 2004).

This framework does not favor the development of institutionalized networks and visible forms of educational governance similar to other European decentralized systems (Tsakiris & Samara, 2018). However, these non-institutionalized networks, that seek to restore and maintain the Model Schools by promoting excellence as an ideological vehicle enhancing the quality of education, are particularly interesting. By using an improvised tool, this research aims at identifying and highlighting the factors that determine how these social networks are transformed into interest groups (Tsakiris 2018; Mele & Baccaro, 2008; Castoriadis 1975) affecting the educational policy in favour of them.

The arising research questions are the following:

1. How rhetoric about "excellence" has finally become a decisive ideological pole in order to cover up or veil the ideological confrontation about educational inequalities regarding school and social justice?
2. How has the state utilized its rhetoric of excellence and contributed to the operation of the non-institutionalized networks, and in particular those relating to Public Model Schools which proclaim the promotion of excellence?
3. In what ways do non-institutionalized social networks linked to Model Schools become educational policy networks with interest group characteristics?

The methodology adopted is based on a mixed quantitative and qualitative method. There is a critical overview of how such networks operate as non-institutionalized ones preserving Model Schools aiming at the ideological hegemony of excellence in public school. Specifically, the quantitative part represents the specific educational governance networks (using UCINET 6 and NetDraw 2.114), while using the qualitative part their complexity is illuminated. At the same time, the way these networks operate within a centralized educational system such as the Greek one and the impact of their structure on the educational policy making processes are analyzed and interpreted. The empirical research used educational governance networks related to the restoration and maintenance of Model Schools as analytical tools so that both quantitative and qualitative approaches are utilized (Börzel, 1997) to explore different ways of organizing linkages between actors. Firstly, it was realized a conceptualization of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and of the way social networks are depicted (Tichy et al., 1979; Borgatti et al., 2002). SNA has defined quantitative measures for the structural characteristics of networks (density, centrality) and for the connections between the actors (link strength). We also used the Policy Network Analysis (PNA) approach (Rhodes, 2006) which also studies how links between actors are organized in order to influence the political outcome of the policy process in a given policy context (depending on the role of the state). Policy networks were perceived as complex social structures within a complex wider dynamic environment (Börzel, 1998; Koppenjan & Klijn, 2004). The content of the 3,500 pages of parliament minutes, education committees, printed and electronic media, websites, conferences and other public placements focused on efforts to restore and maintain the Model School status from 2005 to 2019, was analyzed. In this context, the relationships of actors embedded in algebraic matrices, introduced in UCINET6, were also interpreted to map these networks and visualize them in NetDraw2.114 (Borgatti et al., 2002). To analyze the complexity of these networks and trying to identify relationships at different levels and between the levels of analysis and their temporal dimension, we developed a framework based mainly on the theory of social capital (Bourdieu, 1986) but also on other social theories such as the sociology of organizations (Crozier,1972) and systematic approaches. This framework consists of 3 axes (heterogeneity, connectivity and historical or unforeseen evolution) through which we could interpret both quantitative as well as quantitative data.

The methodological design we have developed demonstrates that there are non-institutionalized (Tsakiris 2018; Castoriadis 1975) educational governance networks in certain categories of public schools (Model Schools) which, although not publicized as such, they have a great deal of power and function as pressure groups in developing an educational policy that guarantees their interests. Empirical research therefore shows that non-institutionalized educational governance networks are formed related to the restoration and maintenance of Model Schools and involve government, public and private actors. Despite of the existence of a centralized education system and at the same time a volatile administrative function, these networks take advantage of the weaknesses to promote, by using excellence as a vehicle for the improvement of the quality of education, a particular form of privatization for a part of public secondary education. The analysis of these networks shows that their structure is related to the achievement of their goals and their influence on educational policy. Although the purpose is common, the motivations appear to differ between actors. Others are motivated by a social fantasy (Tsakiris 2018; Castoriadis 1975) that results from the history of these "national benefactors" schools and from the need to gain prestige through their participation in these schools, others by the expectation of acquiring a social capital that will ensure a successful future for their children and others by financial incentives and more specifically the attempt to promote a kind of privatisation of these schools in public education.

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