The dearth of managerialism in implementation of national examinations policy
Introducing new national examinations is a complex, multi-agency policy implementation. However, there have been some high-profile problems in examination systems in recent years. This research investigated what 10 UK managers involved in the process thought were the main problems. Time pressures we...
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Published in | Journal of education policy Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 55 - 81 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Routledge
01.01.2009
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Introducing new national examinations is a complex, multi-agency policy implementation. However, there have been some high-profile problems in examination systems in recent years. This research investigated what 10 UK managers involved in the process thought were the main problems. Time pressures were recognised as a serious problem by the managers, as well as the politically driven nature of the reform. It is argued that network management explains the lack of high-profile individual leaders, the delegation issues, the apparent lack of traditional management skills, the low level of planning and monitoring, the absence of scoping, a professionalist approach, the lack of separation between policy and implementation and the fact that managers could not specify from the outset what needed to be done for a new round of examination developments. Inter-agency power relationships accounted for lack of negotiation of timescales. Recommendations are made for construction of a qualification development blueprint, scoping of resources, appraisal of the human resources shortage in the UK assessment sector and better stakeholder management of the qualification development policy community by government. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0268-0939 1464-5106 |
DOI: | 10.1080/02680930802382938 |