Governing Narratives: “local” meanings and globalising education policy

New public management and the neo-liberal principles that sustain it have driven performance agendas in government across Europe and beyond. This has produced a loss of the traditional role of education in creating a coherent and persuasive collective myth of belonging, identity or purpose. This chapter discusses current developments in the policy technologies of performance management in England and Scotland in order to assess the continuing significance of “local” narratives in mediating global pressures for policy convergence. It compares the governing narratives that promote performance management in the two systems, concluding that self-evaluation is being installed successfully in Scotland where a Nationalist government has constructed a governing narrative that stresses collaboration and fairness, but England’s reliance on competitive individualism presents problems for the mobilisation of a persuasive governing project.