Τhis study sought to investigate educational executives’ views about their roles and responsibilities in the school practice in Greece and in relation to the New Managerialism (NM) trends in education administration. New Managerialism has been the dominant paradigm in public administration and policy, since its appearance in late 1970s and early 1980s. In education, it emerged in 1990s and since then it has joined as a dominant approach to educational management at local, national, supranational and international level. However, although there have been convergences at a theoretical and conceptual level, in practice the countries have diverged in terms of application of principles and methods of the New Managerialism.

Therefore, the Anglo-Saxon countries, with a strong liberal tradition of administrative organization and provision of public sector services, more easily adopted these principles and made use of market techniques in education. In these countries, assessment and accountability are used as mechanisms to promote market principles, such as the introduction of school competition and the possibility for parents to freely choose schools for their children in an open education market directly linked to school rankings. On the contrary, several countries of central Europe have used assessment and accountability procedures to ensure quality in an educational environment characterized by high levels of decentralization.

Finally, in southern European countries, accountability was incorporated into the institutional framework, in line with the international discourse on educational administration. At the same time, teachers’ professionalism and professional identity are redefined in the social and conceptual framework of New Managerialism. In this context, effective teaching and learning as well as complex accountability mechanisms based on students results in national exams or international tests, like PISA, seem to stand out. Thus, at a supranational and international level, New Managerialism has exerted a strong influence on educational policy and administration. In Greece, where traditional bureaucratic educational administration is almost prevalent, these ideas have recently been adopted in the educational policy.

For the purpose of our study, an empirical research was carried out. Ninety-nine (n=99) out of 104 Directors of Primary and Secondary Education in Greece participated in this study by completing an anonymously disseminated exploratory questionnaire (response rate: 95.19%). Firstly, a pilot survey was conducted, in which 12 Principals of Primary and Secondary Education participated (10% of the total population). The questionnaire was drawn upon the review of the relevant literature on the topic. In the first part, there were questions about gender, educational background, teaching and administrative experiences in schools. In the second part, a five-point Likert scale (i.e.: not at all, a little, quite a lot, a lot, very much) was used. The questions were concerned with the investigation the Education Directors’ views about the following issues: i) their role and responsibilities in the Greek educational administration system, the goals and priorities given in the system, the characteristics of an effective educational administration, ii) the accountability aspects of the Greek educational system, iii) school funding, iv) market mechanisms in the Greek educational system.

Data analysis revealed that Greek educational executives’ roles and responsibilities have slightly changed under the influence of New Managerialism. In particular, they were found to support the deployment of specific New Managerialism characteristics, such as educational accountability and assessment, decentralization and school autonomy attainment, and linked them with the school improvement. All in all, the convergences arisen harmonized with the global trends in educational policy and administration, while the divergences from the international discourse contributed to the better understanding of specific aspects of educational administration in Greece. In conclusion, this study unveiled the long-lasting dynamic role of New Managerialism and its appealing in educational governance worldwide through exploring its impact on the educational administration in Greece.

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