How does educational decentralization work and what has it achieved?

Abstract

Decentralization of provision and finance and centralized control of the content of education has been one of the most common policies since the 1980s.This type of reform can be initiated from above - as in most cases - or from below. Often crucial issues of decision-making have tended to remain at the top. Behind all approaches to decentralization from above, there is a rational, linear and deterministic view; people are assumed to behave rationally in relation to the parameters established by the central state, by market forces or both (Esteva and Prakash, 1998; Hammouda, 1997), but as described in chapter one, different rationalities are in force, not least at the local level.Therefore there is often ambiguity in decentralization processes with regard to responsibility, mandate, and authority.The outcomes are thus heavily conditioned by the local contexts and forces. In the countries where some degree of decentralization already existed (e. g. countries having a federative or other type of semi-decentralized political structure, such as Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US) centralization of certain aspects (mainly curriculum, monitoring and assessment) have been implemented. Re-centralization after a period of decentralization has occurred when decentralization has made an already critical situation still worse. Such examples may be found in, for instance,China and in some areas in Latin America (Arnove et al. 1999;Hanson, 1995;Tsang, 2003). This chapter presents reasons for and goals of decentralization and different approaches to relocating decision-making or issues to lower levels and summarizes findings concerning workings and outcomes of decentralization, especially in terms of local participation1. When it comes to research on decentralization, Siddique (1997) makes a distinction between normative theories and descriptive-analytical theories.The former theories more or less take for granted not only that decentralization has a value in itself but also that it leads to improvement of educational processes and quality. According to the latter type of theories, the function and outcomes of decentralization are matters to be empirically studied. © 2007 Springer.