Our research aims to explore aspects of schools in secondary education in Greece, concerning in particular the governance of the school and the identities of the educational professionals, as these manifest themselves in processes where attempts to introduce new modes of governing are made. Our study analyses an education policy event marking a moment in what Ball calls “the governance turn”, where changes are taking place “in forms of government… in the form and nature of the participants in processes of governance … in the prevailing discourses within governance, and… in the governing of and production of new kinds of … subjects” (Ball, 2009).

More specifically, in this paper we present a small-scale study which, focusing on an “innovative” policy, (“naming the schools”), announced as obligatory, depicts and analyses the responses of a variety of actors within the educational field, as well as from social fields surrounding education (Bourdieu, 1999).

Sketching a brief history of Greek education we notice that, although, since 1995 and especially after 2000, European and global discourses about education have permeated the national system, responses to European policies and attempts from central educational authorities to affect the highly centralized core structures of the Greek education system have been unsuccessful, incomplete, or “ineffective”.

Especially at the time when the specific policy was officially announced, a large set of reforms calling for total restructuring of higher education was attempted to get through, causing tremendous controversy and provoking waves of resistance. This kept secondary education totally in the shadow of reforms.

The policy of “naming the schools” was announced by the Minister of Education personally (January 2009), in the context of the National Strategy for Education and within the frame of the “modernization of the educational system”, along with the announcement of “rules for the harmonious operation of the administrative hierarchy” and the “Innovative Actions” to be implemented.

In our study we have followed the trajectory of this specific top-down policy, aiming to “participate” in the policy enactments within schools and to capture something of the qualities of the Greek secondary education today, illustrating the ways in which “many little p-policies … are formed and enacted within localities and institutions” (Ball, 2008).

Our theoretical framework draws concepts mainly from the works of Bourdieu, Bernstein and Foucault. From Bourdieu we use the concept of the social field (Bourdieu, 1999), as well as the concept of the different forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1986). From Foucault we use the concepts of discourse, the distinction between power and domination, and the concept of resistance (Foucault, 1982). We also use the technologies of power, elaborated by Ball (2005) as policy technologies of managerialism, and performativity. The theory of Bernstein is our main resource, from where we use the concepts of Official and Pedagogic Recontextualising Fields and the concepts of school boundary, classification and framing (Bernstein, 2000). We also use his conceptual couplet projection/introjection as refined by Sarakinioti et al (2011) to provide a typology of pedagogic identities (Bernstein, 2000).

Ball, S.J, Maguire, M. & Braun, A. (2012). HOW SCHOOLS DO POLICY, POLICY ENACTMENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. London: Routledge Ball, S.J. (2009). The governance turn! Journal of Education Policy, 24 (5), 537-538 Ball, S.J. (2008). The education debate. Bristol: The Policy Press Ball, S.J., & Youdell, D. (2008). Hidden Privatisation in Public Education. http://download.ei-ie.org/docs/IRISDocuments/Research%20Website%20Documents/2009-00034-01-E.pdf (access 30-1-2013) Ball, S.J. (2005). The SERA Lecture 2004, Education reform as social barberism: Economism and the end of authenticity. Scottish Educational Review, 37 (1), 4-16 Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Bourdieu, P. (1999). Language & Symbolic Power. Athens: Institute of book-A. Kardamitsa (Greek translation) Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood, 241-258. Foucault, M. (1982). The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, The Will to Knowledge. Athens: Rappa Publ. (Greek translation) Lawn, M. (2006). Soft governance and the learning spaces of Europe, Comparative European Politics, 4(2/3), 272-288 Sarakinioti, A., Tsatsaroni, A. & Stamelos, G. (2011) Changing knowledge in Higher Education, in G. Ivinson, B. Davies & John Fitz (eds) Knowledge and Identity. Concepts and Applications in Bernstein's Sociology. London: Routledge Sassen, S. (2009). A Sociology of Globalization. Athens: Metaixmio (Greek translation)