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Contrived Collegiality

15 January, 2016 - 09:23
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Hargreaves (1994) makes a more fundamental criticism of collegiality, arguing that it is being espoused or “contrived” by official groups in order to secure the implementation of national or state policy. Contrived collegiality has the following features (Hargreaves, 1994):

  • Administratively regulated rather than spontaneous.
  • Compulsory rather than discretionary.
  • Geared to the implementation of the mandates of government or the principal.
  • Fixed in time and place.
  • Designed to have predictable outcomes. (p. 195-196)

    Webb and Vulliamy (1996) argue that collegial frameworks may be used for essentially political activity, the focus of the next section of this chapter (Webb & Vulliamy, 1996):

    The current climate . . . encourages head teachers to be powerful and, if necessary, manipulative leaders in order to ensure that policies and practices agreed upon are ones that they can wholeheartedly support and defend. (p. 448)