Exposing the work of the market through the case of Alternative Provision for English school students

Pupils in England who for some reason are not able to attend school often find themselves in Alternative Provision (AP). These are special arrangements designed to address their specific needs and help them return to mainstream schooling. AP involves a financial agreement between the provider and the organisation that commissions the provision and thus operates as an explicit form of education market in which educational services are traded directly for financial recompense. We report on a case study of one AP provider in the South-West of England undertaken over a one-year period which generated data through individual, semi-structured interviews and observations. These
are analysed using a Foucauldian framework to illuminate how truths are constructed which then govern practices. We demonstrate how market arrangements affect the work of teachers and managers in the school, facing pressures which significantly distort the educational provision, but which satisfy the accountability that comes with the clear and specific market agreement about provision and its cost. We then use this instrumental account of one AP case to draw out more generally how markets operate through forms of accountability that change pedagogical and professional relationships. Specifically, these accountability pressures give teachers’ work its moral
and political form, signalling what the ‘right’ practices are for teachers to undertake and altering the epistemological shape of teaching and learning. We conclude by briefly considering some of the implications for teachers and students.