Decentralization of educational decision-making in the Newfoundland and Labrador education system reform process : illusion or reality

Abstract

Decentralized Decision-Making (DDM) in educational governance has risen to the forefront of the education reform agenda. Autonomy of educational decisionmaking at the local school site crescendos with each sounding call for greater stakeholder involvement and the capacity toward more meaningful voice for change. This thesis provides a critical analysis on the degree of decentralized educational decision-making and the nature of the legislated role of the School Council, the intended DDM model, in the Newfoundland and Labrador education reform process. -- Primary sources of data collected and analysed in the study included the Newfoundland education reform documents, more specifically provincial legislation and government policy statements relevant to the study. Other sources of data included Hansard discourse, Ministerial statements, notes taken during a key informant presentation and follow-up meeting, print and television media, and personal communications. -- The researcher's examination of the relevant government documents and current literature pertinent to the research study took the form of a critical analysis and exegesis emanating from an empirical phenomenological perspective. Using Ethnograph 4.0, a data retrieval computer software program, the researcher deconstructed various terms and elaborative text contained in the gamut of governmental policy statements and documents on the reform of educational decision-making and DDM. -- A DDM Critical Discourse Analytical Typology (DDM CDAT) was compiled and created by the researcher, based on the theoretical framework revealed in the literature. The DDM CDAT was used to examine the segments of data provided by the Ethnograph single code discourse cross-searches. A revised DDM CDAT was constructed as a result of the study to reflect the study's findings and possible contribution to the research base. -- Subsequent developments in government policy show that School Councils have been deemed, by legislation, as advisory bodies for the Newfoundland and Labrador school system and have not been given decentralized power and authority.