RESEARCH ARTICLES

 

Critical Management Research (CMR): reassessment of the marketing in education discourse in South Africa

 

 

A Van Der Bijl

Cape Peninsula University of Technology

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, policy makers, supported by a plethora of publications, favoured a marketing approach to the management of educational institutions. While the origins of the approach could be traced to US practice and British legislation, its application found support throughout the Anglophone world. Unlike the application of marketing principles in business, which is uniform, a variety of approaches were applied in education. Similarly, unlike in business where marketing principles are still generally applied, the application of marketing principles in education has all but disappeared. This article uses concepts drawn from the work of Michael Foucault, and undertakes a critical discourse analysis of international literature on marketing in education, with a reflection of the application of marketing principles to the South African education environment. Summary statement of contribution: The study on which this article is based used discourse analysis to analyse the application of marketing principles to the field of education, with a particular focus on education in South Africa. The article provides a summary of various approaches applied and accounts for lack of acceptance of marketing principles by the education community in South Africa.

Key phrases: critical discourse analysis, critical management studies, educational management, marketing, Michael Foucault

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1. INTRODUCTION

Marketing is generally accepted as a strategic business function, and the application of marketing tools in promoting educational institutions is well recorded. What constitutes marketing in education has, however, been interpreted differently by different authors and, as a result, its execution remains largely discourse-based. The origins of the use of marketing in education can be traced back to the 1980s when a variety of social pressures resulted in what Nebgen (1983:257) called "borrowing from business" by applying "marketing-oriented solutions".

The pressures included state policy, with the British Education Reform Act of 1988 (Gray 1991:5; James & Phillips 1995:75; Smith 1989:5) commonly noted as a catalyst. Community pressure and the development of a theoretical base for marketing practitioners were also noted as reasons (Brooks 1982; Du Toit & Calitz 1993); Keener, Ryan & Smith 1991 ; Kotler & Fox 1985; Lyons 1991; Nebgen 1983; Puffitt, Stoten & Winkley 1992; Savage 1987. In 1985, marketing guru Philip Kotler had his principles of marketing applied to education. Kotler and Fox (1985:3) argue that, as "time passes schools, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions increasingly recognise that they face marketing problems".

The marketing theoretical frameworks that were developed had different epistemological bases. Some associated marketing with public relations while others associated it with the characteristics of specific business environments. What linked all the approaches epistemologically, however, was the underlying ideology of positivism. Positivism is a research ideology associated with early forms of social research, dating back to the 1650s. It is associated with the ideas of empiricism, objectivity and causality (Babbie & Mouton 2011:27) and, according to Scherer (in Alvesson, Bridgeman & Willmott 2009:31), involves the search for regularities without criticising the underling social norms. Critical theory, in contrast, challenges both positivism and the outcomes of positivist-based research.

Although critical theory is generally associated with left-wing and radical sociology, the past few years have witnessed its application to areas beyond its general area of application. Critical analysis discourses have been published in the medical field, the military, education and business. Critical management research, specifically, has developed a research focus on management following the "general spirit" and theoretical orientations of critical social sciences (Alvesson & Deetz 2000:16).

The research being reported here reassessed twenty years of the application of marketing theory to the management of educational institutions. This assessment drew generally on the critical management research-based analysis of marketing management, specifically making use of what can be called a Foucaultian-infused critical discourse analysis.

 

2. METHODOLOGY

The critical approach to researching and studying management was spearheaded by Alvesson. Alvesson's two major publications, Alvesson and Deetz (2000) and Alvesson et al. (2009), are generally used as references. Methodologically, what has become known as critical management studies or critical management research has two points of origin. The first Alvesson and Deetz (2000:1) called "a critical tradition actualized today in both critical theory and postmodernism" and, the second, "'interpretive' research that aims at understanding the micro-practices of everyday life".

Critical management studies (CMS) are strongly aligned with critical studies that grew out of what has become known as the Frankfurt School, particularly the work of Jurgen Habermas (Scherer in Alvesson et al. 2009). CMS also share scepticism of positivism with methodological approaches like critical realism, post-modernism and feminism (Dumbery & Johnson in Alvesson et al. 2009:345). Methodological tools used by practitioners of CMS include critical ethnography, action research (Dumbery & Johnson in Alvesson et al. 2009:350-357) and discourse studies (Grant et al. in Alvesson et al. 2009:213-231).

The works of Michael Foucault are strongly associated with discourse analysis and have become popular as a source of inspiration and methodological indicators for critical researchers in a variety of disciplines, including not only business but also the medical field, the military and education. Myers and Klein (2011:19-20) argue that Foucault is one of four authors associated with the philosophical and theoretical foundations of critical research. Using Foucault is, however, not a simple process of adapting method to case. Foucault published over a few decades, with a specific interest in power. Although his interest was related to power, his views find compatibility with and consequently adaptation to business. Foucault provides what Deacon (2006:177) calls "an array of concepts, analytical techniques, and arguments" that can be used, in Foucault's own words, like "little tool boxes" to be opened, and "like a screwdriver or wrench in order to short-circuit, disqualify or break up systems of power" (Foucault in Keevy 2005:6).

Using Foucault as a methodology involves the identification of tools to use. According to authors like Dreyfus and Rainbow (1983), Fairclough (1992) and Keevy (2005), Foucault's work went through a number of phases. His early works are characterised by a focus on archaeological methodologies, followed later by the application of genealogical methodologies and later by a concern for and focus on ethics Keevy (2005:76). The three phases of his work build on each other, with a study of archaeology focussing on types of discourse, genealogical studies focussing on the relationship between knowledge and power, and the ethical focus on how an individual construct is constituted as a moral subject (Fairclough 1992:39). Applying the ideas of Rainbow, Dreyfus and Foucault methodologically, Keevy (2005) suggests that Foucault's theories can be applied developmentally, using the themes that emanate from each of Foucault's phases.

According to Keevy's (2005:81) application of Foucault's work, the individual's understanding as a being, an "autonomous subject" (Keevy 2005:81) must be constructed, after which an archaeological grid is identified, in which different forms of knowledge are compared, culminating in a genealogy of knowledge. From the genealogy, the ethical substance of a discourse can be identified. The construction of an archaeology of knowledge (Keevy 2005:82-88) involves the identification of the surface emergences and the lines of authority and delimitations that emerge, which culminate in the generation of grids of specification. These grids of specification form a classification system according to which kinds of social phenomena are "divided, contrasted, related, regrouped, classified, derived from one another" (Foucault 1972:47 in Keevy 2005:84).

Construction of a genealogy of knowledge (Keevy 2005:88-93) involves the identification of erudite knowledge and the convergences of local memory, as well as forms of knowledge that emerge from the convergence. Genealogy development also involves the identification, expression and relation of forms of knowledge to expressions of power, and identification of the constraints that emerge. A genealogy is therefore a construction of classification systems. The ethical substance of a discourse is a summary of the analysis, and involves the identification of the essence of its being, the moral obligations and expected moral behaviour that emerge (Keevy 2005:94-95). In short, therefore, a construct (an autonomous subject), which is expressed as indicators (surface emergences) in publications, has to be identified. The surface emergences need to be compared to other statements and expressions, thus forming subject indicators (grids of specification), which combine to form the essence of the construct (its ethical substance).

In applying this Foucaultian-infused analysis, it is possible to identify how selected ideas on the application of marketing principles were applied differently by different people, culminating in the application of marketing principles to managing educational institutions.

 

3. MARKETING AS AUTONOMOUS SUBJECT

Marketing has been defined in a variety of ways, but, as is common to business theory, with an amount of similarity. Philip Kotler, defined marketing in the context of education as "the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of carefully formulated programs designed to bring about voluntary exchanges of values with target markets to achieve institutional objectives" (Kotler & Fox 1985:7).

McDonald and Morris (1987:2), in a Pictorial guide for marketers, provide two descriptions. They first describe marketing as ".. the creative management function which promotes trade and employment by assessing customer needs and initiates research and development to meet them. It co-ordinates the resource of production and distribution of goods and services, determines and directs the nature and scale of the total effort required to sell profitably to the ultimate user." They then go on to indicate that marketing can be regarded as "finding out what the customer wants ... and providing it".

3.1 Marketing myopia

Marketing as a business orientation owes its existence to an argument initially set forth by Theodore Levitt in 1960 through the publication of an article called "Marketing myopia" in the Harvard Business Review. The article, widely republished, reprinted and updated, has been noted as the "turning point in the acceptance and respectability of marketing" (The Economist 2009:Internet).

Levitt's argument is based on a statement that even major industries operate in a "shadow of decline" (Levitt 1960 in Wilson 1965:231-234). Levitt sees the situation developing as a result of a self-deceiving cycle, a cycle created by the existence of four conditions:

■ a belief that growth is ensured by an expanding population;

■ competition being ignored;

■ faith in mass production; and

■ a preoccupation with a product.

In contrast to the faith in growth, Levitt argues that a business is a need-satisfying process, so is arguing in favour of accepting market needs as the key business success determinant. Levitt argues that the realities of the market in which the organisation operates are ignored or subordinated to production processes (Wilson 1965:245). In contrast, Levitt argues that business success is the result of management acceptance that an organisation is a "need satisfying process", and it focusses on the delivery of need satisfaction.

While Levitt's argument has been critiqued, he repeated his argument in a large number of subsequent publications. The Harvard Business Review reprinted versions of the original article, one with the same title by Levitt himself in 1975 (Levitt 1975) and another, as an editorial, in 2006 under the title "What business are you in? Classic advice from Theodore Levitt" (Harvard Business Review 2006).

The argument postulated by Levitt heralded what has been called a marketing orientation. The orientation was widely accepted by marketing-oriented business theorists, including Kotler and Fox (1985), Kotler (1967; 1986; 1988), Brassington and Pettitt (1997), McDonald (1999) and Kotler and Armstrong (2004), and, in South Africa, Marx and Dekker (1982), Lucas (1989), Marx and Van der Walt (1993), Van der Walt, Strydom, Stanton, Etzel, Walker, Abratt, Pitt and Staude (1993) and Marx and Jooste (1996). Marketing publications contrast a marketing orientation with other orientations. While Levitt's argument was postulated in the early 1960s, the key development period for marketing was the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. This was a time when business education and training focussed on functional management, as opposed to a more general focus before then, and a business sector focus that followed in the mid-1990s.

3.2 Marketing and other orientations

Marketing publications indicated that a production orientation dates back to the Industrial Revolution, while the failure of the productions and sales orientation in the 1930s (De Swart 1986:38-40) led to the need to find buyers for products.

Orientation, in the context of marketing, refers to a philosophy or epistemology underlying business practice. While most marketing publications differentiate between four orientations, Kotler differentiates between five orientations, which he calls concepts, namely production, product, selling, marketing and societal marketing.

According to Kotler (1986:14-16), these concepts can be described as follows:

■ Production refers to a management philosophy that represents a belief that consumers favour products that are available and affordable. Consequently, it is believed that management should concentrate on improving production efficiency. Such a philosophy is commonly applicable to exercises aimed at developing physical capacity, for example, increasing student numbers, pass rates, etc.

■ Product refers to a management philosophy that represents a belief that consumers favour products with the highest quality or best features. According to this belief, management should constantly try to improve product quality. An emphasis on quality, especially internally defined quality, can lead to community (market) alienation.

■ Selling, in contrast to the first two, refers to a management philosophy that represents a belief that consumers will not buy enough of an organisation's products unless the organisation undertakes a substantial selling and promotion effort. Such a philosophy commonly follows the failure of the above two philosophies.

■ Marketing refers to a management philosophy based on the belief that the key to achieving organisations' goals involves determining consumer needs and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively than competitors. When a marketing orientation is applied the central point involves determining the benefits to be gained by both suppliers and receivers.

■ Societal marketing refers to a broadening of the marketing concept. As a management philosophy, it is based on a belief that the key to achieving organisational goals involves determining consumer needs and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively than competitors and in such a way that the well-being of the consumer and of society is enhanced.

Kotler's classification of management concepts was and remains generally accepted by other marketing authors. South African authors like Lucas (1989:14-16) and Marx and Van der Walt (1993:15-19), for example, use a similar classification system. Lucas only distinguishes between three orientations: a production orientation, a sales orientation and a marketing orientation, while Marx and Van der Walt (1989:15-19) in subsequent publications and using the same three orientations suggested, in line with Kotler, that the marketing orientation has been superseded by a strategic approach to marketing.

A marketing focus is characterised by the adoption of the marketing concept and the application of marketing principles to carry out its activities. Lucas (1989:16) compares a marketing focus with the others by indicating that a marketing focus recognises the interdependence of a supplier and its consumer, while a sales focus does not. Furthermore, Lucas (1989:16) argues that a marketing focus recognises that a supplier must continually communicate with its consumer, "throughout the marketing process and thereafter", while a production orientation does not. An elaboration on the marketing concept provides essential market-oriented management principles.

Kotler (1988:17-24) identified, in addition to a marketing focus, three elements involved in the application of the marketing concept: a consumer orientation, coordinated marketing, and profitability. In line with Levitt's (1975) argument, a consumer orientation dictates that an organisation defines consumer needs from a consumer point of view, not from an organisational point of view. Coordinated marketing, in line with a strategic approach, dictates that marketing activities are coordinated to satisfy consumer needs and that the rest of the organisation is coordinated to appreciate the importance of satisfying consumer needs. Profitability, in line with sound financial management, dictates that the above principles occur within the parameters of profitability or sustainability.

The general implication that marketing orientations have replaced other orientations is not expressed by Kotler. He suggests that the other orientations represent underlying principles benchmarked for activities aimed at reaching consumers.

With reference to educational institutions, Kotler and Fox (1985:11) presented an argument in line with Levitt's (1975) argument about business a decade earlier. Kotler and Fox (1985:11) argue that "[even] though most educational institutions want to be responsive to the needs of their students and other constituencies, they often get sidetracked by their traditions and institutional culture. Instead of a marketing orientation, educational institutions may reflect a preoccupation with their product (a product orientation), with efficiency (a production orientation), or with pushing potential students to select the institution's current programs (a selling orientation)."

 

4. MARKETING EDUCATION

A variety of reasons were postulated as the causes for the development of an interest in the application of marketing principles to the management of educational institutions. Prominent was the acceptance of the relevance of marketing principles to the management of educational institutions, with arguments in favour ranging from making a case for marketing to aspects that could be include in management processes (Brooks 1982; Nebgen 1983; Kotler & Fox 1985; Savage 1987; Keener et al. 1991; Lyons 1991;Du Toit & Calitz 1993; Puffitt et al. 1992).

Marketing-oriented arguments also resulted from a change in the nature of education provision from the late 1980s. This was a time during which funding and responsibility for provision moved from the state to local communities and educational institutions. Arguments linked to the establishment of markets for education were echoed strongly in British writing, particularly those criticising state policy linked to the 1988 Education Reform Act (Gray 1991:5; James & Phillips 1995:75; Smith 1989:5). Legislation forcing or encouraging marketisation was not limited to the UK Legislation promulgated in South Africa in the early to mid-1990s (see South Africa 1992; 1995a; 1995b) acted as a catalyst in the interest in the use of marketing and other management principles in this country.

Unlike the business application of marketing in which a dominant construction of knowledge emerged, a variety of constructions emerged. Van der Bijl (1996:57) identified six constructions, called "schools of thought", in research done in the mid-1990s. These schools of thought were:

■ marketing educational institutions as business units;.

■ marketing educational institutions as non-profit-seeking institutions;

■ marketing educational institutions as units within the service sector;

■ marketing educational institutions as an external communications or public relations exercise;

■ marketing educational institutions as institutions within a separate sector; and

■ marketing educational institutions based on sub-sector or institution-specific characteristics.

One application of marketing principles involved applying the idea that marketing was a functional educational management task (see Brooks 1982; Du Toit & Calitz 1993; Keener et al. 1991; Kotler & Fox 1985; Lyons 1991; Nebgen 1983; Savage 1987; Puffitt et al. 1992). Literature aligned with this approach was commonly published in the 1970s and early 1980s. Publications aligned with the view of marketing as a functional educational management task appeared in the 1990s and still appear (Robertson 2011) and commonly make reference to the applicability of marketing to the management of educational institutions. Terms like "broadening" (McDaniel 1979:8-10), the concepts of "marketing" and "borrowing from business" by applying "marketing-oriented solutions" (Nebgen 1983:257) were used.

Management of non-profit intuitions has developed as a discourse. Underlying this approach is the perception that educational institutions are community-based institutions and therefore non-profit-seeking institutions. In contrast to the direct application of selected marketing principles to managing educational institutions, the use of principles developed for non-profit-seeking institutions attempted a detailed conceptualisation of applying marketing principles to managing educational institutions (see Bradbury 1990; De Swart 1986; Stot & Parr 1990).

In the early 1990s, the non-profit approach was adapted and reconstructed into a discourse that equated marketing educational institutions to marketing a service. The adaptation and reconstruction were done by using the principles of marketing service institutions, like banking, tourism and the public sector (Gray 1991:12-25). The discourse was based on "[the] premise that education is a service and as such has a number of features in common with other activities in the public and private sectors which provide services" (Gray 1991:12).

A discourse that had its origins in adaptations within education, in educational management's discourse on school-community relations (see for example Everard & Morris 1990; Gorton & Thierbach-Schneider 1991; Van der Westhuizen 1991), applied ideas based on principles of public relations, in cases including the term "marketing" as a synonym for public relations. This was, however, a discourse fraught with conceptual contradiction in which the conceptual lines between marketing and public relations were blurred.

Savage (1987:77), for example, indicated that an educational institution's public information officer's (PIO) "effective public relations program" (Savage 1987:77) needed to form part of "overall marketing activities". Devlin and Knight (1990), similarly, produced a publication entitled Public relations and marketing for schools. After indicating the difference between marketing and public relations, the entire publication focussed on the public relations communication processes (Dean 1993:100-107). Similarly, some years later, the publication Management of the secondary school, included a chapter called "Marketing the school" (Robertson 2011:13-14), which provided a description and discussion of the importance of public relations as a step in a four-step process aimed at bringing "more students into the school, together with their budget allowances" (Dean1993:101).

 

5. ETHICAL SUBSTANCE OF MARKETING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The application of marketing principles to managing educational institutions was not only linked to the application of business principles, it was also linked to the application of educational management principles. While some applications had their origins in business principles, educational management publications, no doubt influenced by the application of marketing principles to the management of educational institutions and influenced by similar applications of principles of public relations (see Devlin & Knight 1990), expanded terminology and concepts. Educational management publications broadened sections on the educational management communication task to include terms and tasks involved in marketing and public relations (see for example De Wet 1981; Everard & Morris 1990; Gorton & Thierbach-Schneider 1991; Hepworth 1987; Peach 1985; Van der Westhuizen 1991).

While many publications adapted existing theories to market educational institutions and applied them as a functional task, some authors placed marketing of educational institutions at a level of general or strategic management (see Bisschoff, Du Plessis & Smith 2004; Kotler & Fox 1985; Marland & Rogers 1991). Publications such as these did not focus on industries or sectors; they focussed on the overall construct of marketing and applied it to the marketing of educational institutions. From this latter class of educational management publications, the incorporation of marketing into the educational management portfolio of activities could have been expanded.

 

6. THE END OF AN EDUCATIONAL MARKETING ORIENTATION

While the application of marketing principles was an exciting exercise for those involved at the time, marketing principles, at least in South Africa, were never generally applied. Even in the areas of education where marketing principles were accepted as part of an educational institution's management function its application all but disappeared by the turn of the century.

In South Africa, three reasons for the demise of a marketing orientation stand out. They are:

■ a change of focus from middle-class to working-class education;

■ an increase in state policy prescriptiveness; and

■ the introduction and application of excellence models.

6.1 Change of focus

In the 1980s and 1990s, the hegemonic focus of educational management theory was on schools in middle-class communities and communities on the middle-class periphery. Schools supporting such communities faced the challenge of attracting learners and managing resources within a framework of support from the state and surrounding donor communities. Management issues focussed on at the time included decision-making (Prinsloo 1985), decentralisation (La Grange 1983), financing (La Grange 1991), productivity (Landey 1997), school business management (Everard & Morris 1990; Gorton & Thierbach-Schneider 1991; Van der Westhuizen 1991) and the management of school-community relations (Peach 1985).

This approach was not limited to South Africa. South African policy was strongly influenced by international management discourses (McLennan & Thurlow in Coleman 2003:1). Institution-based management approaches found support in the Levitt-based argument that defined their problem as that of marketing.

At the time, educational institutions were expected to supplement state income by income from their support community. In successfully executing income-generating roles, internal and external promotion became an issue (Bisschoff et al. 2004:2-3). Once again, as illustrated by Bisschoff et al. (2004:2-3), this was not an issue unique to South Africa; it was an international issue at the time.

Since the 1990s, there has been a shift from a focus on management of middle-class schools to broader working-class schooling. As the focus shifted from middle-class schooling to working-class schooling, the institution-based marketing orientation was replaced by a production-oriented centralist policy implementation focus. Once the hegemonic focus had moved to working-class schooling, a different set of managerial imperatives developed. These imperatives included issues of governance, social development and transformation, capacity development and broader community collaboration (McLennan & Thurlow 2003 in Coleman 2003:2-7).

6.2 Increase in prescriptiveness of state policy

In addition to a changing agenda, state policy development and implementation became more comprehensive and more prescriptive. Managerial freedom associated with the 1990s was eroded by a combination of policy and a shift in educational management training. Post-1994 changes implemented in South Africa were broad and multidimensional. Educational policy change was systematic and introduced through a cascade of new laws, policy measures and other publications, augmented by targeted employment practices. A key change agent was the school curriculum. Plans for curriculum change predate the 1994 election (Harley & Wedekind in Chisholm 2004:196) and the key curriculum developers included people who were to dominate the development of education policy and curriculum, both of the state (school curriculum) as well as for the state (in higher education). The change was aligned with the view that the South African national curriculum "needed to change because our society experienced, and is still experiencing, major political, economic, technological and social changes" (South African Institute for Distance Education 2005:135). The new state therefore legislated a new school curriculum as well as its management, and higher education adapted its curricula to suit the systemic needs. State policy aimed at social change and transformation eroded the potential of a marketing orientation and replaced it by a production orientation.

6.3 Excellence models

A third indicator of the demise of marketing-oriented management in education may be linked to the introduction and application of quality improvement and excellence models. Acceptance of quality models and frameworks was noted by Robson, Yarrow and Owen (2005:465-466) as being on the United Kingdom's education agenda since the mid-1990s. Excellence models also found expression in centres of excellence in teaching and learning (CETL) (King 2010), the designation and funding of focus schools, and others (Motshekga 2011).

The implementation of centralised excellence models has centralised the responsibility for implementing good practice. The implication is that local-level good practice has been subordinated to centralised criteria, potentially at the expense of needs, requirements and demands of local communities. State policy aimed at improving schooling quality has further eroded the potential of a marketing orientation by replacing it with a product orientation.

Educational institutions that could be expected to apply a marketing orientation are public in affluent/middle-class areas. Schools in both upper- and lower-middle-class communities have, however, been faced with a situation where demand exceeds supply. At a practical level, the demand/supply situation allows sought-after schools to select who to accept and who not to accept into the school. For this category of school, marketing is principally a functional task, largely limited to promotion, and therefore subordinated to a product orientation.

One type of school where marketing appears to have remained a key element of management, at least in South Africa, are those registered as independent schools. Independent schools include schools who do not receive state funding. These schools are self-controlled and self-managed, with the state acting as a monitor for certain issues. Teachers employed by the school and resources belong to the school's owners (South Africa 1996).

Whether or not schools falling in this category are marketing-oriented or not is an open question. While they are known to pay significant attention to promotion and to be more business-oriented than public schools, the linguistic discourse of an article published in The Business of Teaching, the South African education magazine whose target is teachers, school managers and principals in public and independent schools, suggests otherwise.

In the article entitled "Market your school", Robertson (2011:13-14) makes a case for promoting schools. The article starts with a critique of a production orientation by indicating, "We have more applications every year than we have seats available", followed by a statement that schools face the reality that some applicants have to be accepted and an indication of what schools can do to "include a higher ratio of learners who have much to offer the school", including a financial contribution. The essence of the article, rather than to focus on need satisfaction, focusses on the management of a brand and external communication. While the value of brand management is not refuted, underlying it is a product orientation, a belief that consumers favour products with the highest quality or best features. While it can be argued that brand management and public relations communication improve levels of satisfaction by all involved with the school, the article serves to illustrate that the focus of middle-class schooling remains on the product, not on need satisfaction.

The product orientation is supported by current state policy orientation, as expressed in the development of centres of excellence in teaching and learning (CETL) in schools in the United Kingdom and focus schools in South Africa. While the necessity of quality can be postulated in the interest of society, the focus of its current application is on enhancing pockets, and not the general maximisation of the interaction between demand and supply. A centralised approach to developing centres of excellence (CoEs) can be critiqued in Levitt's expression with the faith in mass production and a preoccupation with a product "What gets short-changed are the realities of the market" (Wilson 1965:245).

 

7. CONCLUSION

This article used Foucault-infused discourse analysis to address the application of marketing principles to the management of educational institutions. Foucaultian discourse analysis is one of a number of forms of social discourse analysis. By using Foucault's application of discourse analysis, particularly his construct of a genealogy, it was, using Foucault's terminology, the ethical substance of marketing that was constructed, after which the application of marketing principles to the management of educational institutions was mapped, as was an indication of what happened to the mapped constructs in practice over time.

Using analytical processes derived for Foucault's work served the purpose of bringing together diverse forms of theory that were developed over time and utilised for a common purpose. The value of this form of analysis is that it provides a framework for an argument. This form of analysis follows the argument of Fejes and Nicholl (2008:4) that a Foucaultian perspective offers alternate ways to formulate questions, and therefore has the potential of providing different answers.

The Foucaultian-infused analysis of the application of marketing principles indicated the changes in management approach and policy orientation over a decade. The analysis also indicated how a management paradigm finds and loses favour as policy orientations change. A marketing approach was favoured in the 1990s when schools were expected to attract and serve learners, but fell out of favour when, on the one hand, demand for marketing schools became unpopular and, on the other hand, state policy focus changed from a supporting decentralised management to one of enforcing centralised ideas.

 

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