Duncan O'Leary
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
at 3:08pm
on Thursday, 3rd February 2005
Networks of schools are something that Demos has been interested in for a while; last year David Hargreaves suggested in Education Epidemic that the entire education system would benefit from the use of 'innovation networks', whilst the thinking that Tom laid out in the introduction to that pamphlet was re-visited in a recent publication from the National College for School Leadership.
The Conservative plans also emphasise the role of choice in driving up school standards, and it will be interesting to see how these two narratives converge as the plans are fleshed out and debated. Hargreaves addresses this issue directly, writing,
Any word from our St Albans correspondent..?
Networks of schools are something that Demos has been interested in for a while; last year David Hargreaves suggested in Education Epidemic that the entire education system would benefit from the use of 'innovation networks', whilst the thinking that Tom laid out in the introduction to that pamphlet was re-visited in a recent publication from the National College for School Leadership.
The Conservative plans also emphasise the role of choice in driving up school standards, and it will be interesting to see how these two narratives converge as the plans are fleshed out and debated. Hargreaves addresses this issue directly, writing,
'Just as practitioners argue for the enabling intervention to replace the directive, they plead for collaboration to supersede competition. This is another false antithesis, for the business world flourishes by a complex mixture of collaboration, in the form of strategic alliances, inter-firm networks and joint ventures, with competition to win and retain customers. This can be achieved in education too, allowing a general levelling up of quality and providing choice that is immune from allegations that diversity necessarily creates a two-tier system. Diversity is one of the preconditions for an emergent system out of which transformative innovations will spring'
Any word from our St Albans correspondent..?
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