Abstract

VAN DER WALT, J.L.; MENTZ, P.J.; BREED, J.A.  and  COETSEE, L.D.. Performativity and the modern school(principal). Koers (Online) [online]. 2008, vol.73, n.3, pp.469-487. ISSN 2304-8557.

Based on observations in the field of education management science, including the results of a recent empirical survey, we concluded that schools and their principals have become inundated with the demands for performativity, i.e. the demand to achieve in measurable terms as well as submit to the cult of efficiency and effectiveness. After briefly considering recent developments and changes in schools and in the work of school principals, we refer to the findings of the empirical survey. This is followed by a discussion of three key objections to performativity in schools and in the work of principals, namely the reductionism that it presupposes, its non-pedagogical tendencies and its negative effects on the school as a societal relationship. The discussion is conducted within a Christian-reformational frame of reference.

Keywords : educational management performativity philosophy of education school.

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