Session Information
99 ERC SES 03 M, Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The ECER 2024 call for proposals states that ‘Social, political, and economic problems have significant impacts on education and educational research.’ Accordingly, there is a need to investigate who has the power in education, and who can come to terms with present challenges and provide hope for the future. The truth is in all probability that there is a range of powerful actors in education.
In this paper middle managers in local education administrations constitute key actors. The chief education officer delegates assignments, and power, to the middle managers. What is delegated may be regulated in writing or an oral agreement between the chief education officer and the middle manager. Institutional structure and relationships are believed to be important factors to expand or limit the acquisition of power. How the local education administration is organised, what the middle manager mandate entails and the extent of autonomy available generate diverse powers. Given their position in their respective organisations, in between the chief education officers and head teachers, we can assume that middle managers possess power, but what kind of power requires more research. Departing from the concept of power the paper aims to answer the research question ‘What kind of power do middle managers in local education administrations exercise?’
There is a general understanding that bureaucratic power is located at the highest point of a hierarchy. Peters et al. (2016) however maintain that significant power resources reside with those further down the hierarchy as they are equipped with expertise and knowledge. In Sweden, the local governments, and in particular local education administrations, play a vital role in the governance of education. Furthermore, local self-governance is pronounced. Local governments differ considerably in terms of size, demography and resources, this fact, coupled with the freedom to independently decide on ways of organising generates unique local administrations. There is not one single way that local governments make use of middle managers. What is known is that school leaders have increased in numbers in both local education administrations and at the school level because of larger school units and due to more leadership duties and strengthened administrative control (Ärlestig & Leo 2023). Today many Swedish local education administrations house middle managers and have one, or several, layers of middle managers between the chief education officer and head teachers. There are different middle managers, here school form managers and school area managers are in focus.
There are different ways to understand power. The research question will be answered utilising the concepts power over, power to and power with (cf. Högberg 2007, Pansardi & Bindi 2021, Pansardi 2012). The first refers to power over other human beings while the second concerns the power to do things generally, and the third refers to how a group can work jointly to reach shared outcomes or goals (Pansardi & Bindi 2021, Pansardi 2012). Moreover, the paper centres on both hard and soft powers. While hard power includes financial power and the ability to employ and make employees redundant soft power takes account of attracting others to move in a certain direction. Hard power is about coercion whereas soft power is about incentives (Nye 2010).
Method
This study rests on qualitative data. Interviews were conducted in the spring of 2023 with education officers in four local education administrations. Interviews have been conducted with chief education officers, middle managers and head teachers. A total of 18 interviews were conducted, their length ranging from 35 to 97 minutes. The local governments are located in different parts of Sweden, and they are of various sizes. To be selected the local government was required to have a minimum of one local education administration (there are local governments without education administrations) and a minimum of one organisation layer of middle managers. Three of the local education administrations selected have one layer of middle managers between the chief education officer and head teachers while one has two layers. The informants participated in individual semi-structured interviews most of which were conducted in their respective workplaces and some on Zoom. The themes covered in the interviews included background questions on education and working life, the organisation of the local education administration, function and mandate, relationships at the workplace, autonomy and, finally, governance and power. Regardless of whether the informant worked as a chief education officer, middle manager or head teacher; the middle manager role was at the heart of the conversation. For this paper, the parts related to perceptions concerning power will be in focus. Power will be analysed using three forms of power: power over, power to and power with. The paper does not have a generalising ambition, rather, the objective is to present how power can be utilised in various ways by middle managers in various contexts.
Expected Outcomes
The data has been categorised and preliminary results indicate that there are various manners to exercise power. Middle managers exercise power over, power to and power with. Power is a loaded term with various connotations. One informant does not want to admit to exercising power but recognises her/his influence. Simultaneously power is recognised as important. As indicated, all three forms of power surface in the interviews. In the case of heads of local governments they should not make decisions without negotiations with local councillors (Högberg, 2007), middle managers in turn may require the support of senior local government officers to exercise decision-making. The chief education officer, and other superordinates, directly or indirectly influence whether middle managers have power over, power to or power with. In one of the local education administrations working as a unit is emphasised (power with). In another hierarchy, not circumventing levels, is considered essential (power over). Moreover, power comes with the position. Being an education officer is a position of power which can entail both power over and power to. In an interview, it is stressed that knowledge is power; power to. There are further examples of power to, for instance, some officers have power over the budget. Furthermore, middle managers prioritise among policies. The three categories enable problematising power or lack thereof. In one of the administrations, the chief education officer and the middle managers work as a team. Either power with truly entails a distribution of power or merely disguises that the chief education officer holds the most power and is unwilling to delegate. My presentation will elaborate on the manifestation of middle manager power; more specifically, how middle managers, and their superordinates and subordinates, perceive them to exercise power over, power to and power with.
References
Högberg, Ö. 2007. Maktlösa Makthavare: En studie om kommunalt chefskap. Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University. Nye, J. S. Jr. 2010. The Powers to Lead. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pansardi, P. 2012. “Power to and power over: two distinct concepts of power?” Journal of Political Power, 5 (1), 73-89. Pansardi, P. & Bindi, M. 2021. “The New Concepts of Power? Power-over, Power-to and Power-with, Journal of Political Power”, 14:1, 51-71. Peters, B. G., Erkkila, T. & Maravic, P. v. 2016. Public Administration: Research Strategies, Concepts, and Methods. New York: Routledge. Ärlestig, H. & Leo, U. 2023. “Sweden – Good Will on All Governance Levels is not Enough to Create Sustainable Improvement”, in Gunnulfsen et al. (eds.) Education and Democracy in the Nordic Countries. Switzerland: Springer Nature.
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