A performative analysis of primary school governance: labour, costs and repair work

Presented in this thesis is a feminist poststructuralist bricolage of primary school governors’ talk, written narrative accounts and documentation. Drawing from Judith Butler’s writings, this thesis de-naturalises performances of school governing, departing from and countering the functionalist and rationalist standpoints that dominate the field. It is argued that the current body of literature fails to recognise the complexity of evoking the school governor; the labour, costs and repair work required to secure and sustain viable subjectivity within the terms of recognition.

By inserting a feminist poststructuralist perspective into the field, the unstable boundaries of school governors’ subjectivity are foregrounded. The Butlerian concepts of ‘recognition’ and ‘intelligibility’ were applied to analyse the performative acts of school governance. Analysis drew attention to how the discursive construction of the school governor is constituted and (re)produced through a gendered intelligibility matrix of commitment, challenge and objectivity that create tensions between different subject positions, most significantly maternal subjectivity. Continual maintenance is thus required and temporarily achieved through ‘emotional labour’ and ‘speech censorship’, where the demands and costs attached to securing recognition and coherence become even greater.

These conclusions present a far more complex understanding of accountability in school governance; challenging the notion that school governors’ holding of leaders to account is
solely linked to the presence or absence of any expert or ‘professional’ knowledge.

Drawing on Butler’s writings has inserted an important dimension into the discussion of school governance, highlighting the labour, costs and repair work that maintain school governor viability. This has raised significant questions about the consequences of school governance’s regulatory imperatives and has implications for the culture that governs the scene of recognition. Significantly more effort to make school governing an inclusive space is required if boards are ever going to be truly reflective of the communities they serve.