Edu-preneurial marketing to school leaders : strategies, stories and consequenses

• Research topic: New actors in the field of education – ‘edu-preneurs’ – now offer a multitude of products and services to schools: digital solutions, school development models, teaching material, conferences, professional development, etc. This paper is part of a larger study, of which the purpose is to explore under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences these ‘edu-preneurial’ actors market, sell and implement their products and services in Swedish schools. Theoretical framework: Theoretically this project learns from earlier studies concerning neoliberal governing, the marketization of school and the ongoing blurring of boundaries between public and private sectors. Methodological design: The larger study is accomplished through interviews with school leaders as well as with edupreneurial companies. In this specific paper we study what happens inside school because of edupreneurial engagement. We analyse the total amount of marketing material sent via mail and e-mail (and collected in this research study) to 12 participating school leaders during 2018-2019 and our interviews with these school leaders about the collected material. In focus of the paper are the implications for school leaders and how they experience the impact of edu-preneurial actors; what areas and tasks are outsourced, why and how the school organization is affected in terms of administration, teaching and learning. We are also interested in the strategies and marketing of the edu-preneurs themselves and what messages they want to convey to school leaders. The data is analysed from the following questions: • Quantity and distribution. What is the extent of the collected material and how is it distributed between different schools? • Stories. What does the empirical data tell us about the Swedish schoolÅLs challenges and solutions? • Themes. Is every possible school issue addressed, is there something for everyone, or is it all about one dominant theme? Expected findings: The data collection is ongoing and the results to be presented will be preliminary. We expect to have results telling us about 1) the extent and content of the marketing material sent out to school leaders by edu-preneurial actors in the Swedish context, 2) what products and services school leaders buy and under what terms and conditions, and 3) what kind of impact these external actors and solutions have, for school leaders, staff, pupils, and school practice. Relevance: Previous research has studied these questions on a policy-level. This study explores the micro-level where the operationalisation of different policies can be observed. We assert that knowledge about the micro-level help us understand the effects of outsourcing essential parts of education to external actors. As edu-prenurial engagement in education is a global phenomenon this is of importance in our Nordic context. We conclude by discussing this in terms of what counts as valid knowledge, good teaching and effective learning.

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