The Transformation of Educational Administration: The Hegemony of Consent and the Hegemony of Coercion

Abstract

The period after 1982, when the Labor Party came to power in Victoria, saw a change in the underlying rhetoric dealing with educational administration. Initially, through a series of six ministerial papers, the administration of education was couched in terms of grass-roots decision making, collaboration and participation. However, in the second half of the 1980s, a new series of documents sought to implement a corporate management approach. This trend towards the practices of the business world has been echoed in other states and more recently at the national level. The paper examines the historical essence of the rise of corporate management and accounting techniques with their link to the ideology of scientific management, in which the figure of Taylor looms large. Gramsci's notion of the hegemony of consent and coercion offers an explanation of the changes in the administration of education at both the state and national levels in Australia.