An investigation into the relationship between individual freedom and central government control within post-2010 free school proposals

Bray, David ORCID: 0000-0002-5149-005X (2024). An investigation into the relationship between individual freedom and central government control within post-2010 free school proposals. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis considers the interface between individual freedom and central government control within the context of free schools created by the 2010 - 2015 Conservative-dominated coalition government. Free schools were positioned as a superior school-type, allowing leaders to utilise innovation for the benefit of parent-consumers. However, free school proposers needed to negotiate rules used by central government to approve suitable applications (application-assessment), and, once open, a regulatory framework applied to all state-funded schools. The tension between freedom and control is seen as one part of what Bourdieu described as a field, a bounded social space where key individuals, or groups, use power to control entry. The field reflects the dynamics of a relentless competition, defined through its doxa, or rules of the ‘game’. Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) is used to analyse themes and thematic groups prominent within official-discourse, innovation practice within a random sample of ‘established’ free schools approved before the end of 2013, and testimony captured from interviews with individuals involved with free school applications. This provides insight into the ‘currency-value’ of the field, its doxa, and how individuals may have misrecognised the way rules controlling the ‘game’ could be seen as arbitrary. Analysis shows that successful proposers required existing credentials associated with a ‘good’ school or a ‘good’ multi academy trust. This ‘exchange-value’, defined by Central government, ensured that free schools met its needs, and therefore maintained the official cultural values of ‘good’ schools, ‘good’ pupils and ‘good’ teachers.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):