Stuart Hall, the eminent cultural studies theorist and sociologist, once remarked, ‘…metaphors are serious things. They affect one’s practice’. Stuart Hall was right. All utterances, whether they are articulated in the form of describing, evaluating or arguing, may be considered vehicles for social action. They constitute orientating, taxonomical, effective work (frameworks, prescriptions or paradigms) for accounting for one’s practice. In other words language signifies and is signified through the appropriation of socially circulating discourses which we take to be meaningful as explanations for why we think the way we think, and why we act the way we do. Language then is never natural or neutral, though it is often the intent of some speakers to present it as such – effortless, common-sense, natural, etc. As you can tell, I am fascinated by what people say, but more importantly, how people speak and what this tells about how action is interpreted, rationalized and reproduced through language.
In preparation for a book I am writing for Routledge I wanted to make sure I had some catchy subtitles to incorporate into my chapters. It is one the few things I rarely give much consideration when writing, and one of the things that works so well as a form of signposting to readers. During the last few months as part of my coding and analysis of interview data (nearly finished by the way) I have taken time to note any idiomatic speech patterns performed by participants (school governors, senior leadership, school business managers and headteachers) – that is, widely-used phrases and expressions which capture what Raymond Williams called a ‘structure of feeling’, something indicative or emblematic of a person and culture. And oh boy, do school governors say the darndest things! After reading the list of idioms below please let me know if any them resonate with you (and why), and whether the definitions provided need updating, clarifying, further specification.
- ‘Bums on seats’: refers to typical school governor attitude to governance prior to Local Management of Schools (LMS). Governors feeling detached, without formal powers, not listened to, with councillors doing much of the directing.
- ‘Division of labour’: refers to the different roles performed by governors in relation to their skills and knowledge, for example finance and resources, safeguarding, curriculum and teaching, personnel, and so forth.
- ‘Fire fighting’: when school governors are panic stricken over results, engaging in problem solving over immediate, short-term problems, and so are not engaged in innovative, long-term thinking.
- ‘Hard and fast influence’: influencing higher-order governance decisions, guiding long-term strategy and planning.
- ‘my two-penneth worth’: to share opinions or perspectives which can make a modest contribution to any discussion.
- ‘leading my troops into battle’: analogy used to describe leadership style, also ‘frontline’, ‘rousing the troops’, ‘battle cries’. Military metaphors are commonplace among educational professionals.
- ‘putting your head above the parapet’: Parapet: (definition) In terms of fortification, a parapet (or breastwork) is a wall of stone, wood or earth on the outer edge of a defensive wall or trench, which shelters the defenders.
- ‘wool pulled over their eyes’: when information is deliberately concealed from school governors, and school governors are incapable of noticing such omissions.
- ‘reading between the lines’: discerning patterns and relationships, even anomalies in data which others may lack the skill to uncover.
- ‘still Improving, not plateauing’: continuous school improvement is the order of the day.
- ‘bricks and sticks consultants’: refers to mechanical engineering experts who, alongside an architect and quantity surveyor, are brought into the consultation process when any contracts/services need to be outsourced to external providers through a competitive tendering process.
- ‘direction of travel’: an agreed upon set of values or principles that informs all governance decisions and which are ideally shared by all governors. How much of these values or principles are ever made explicit is debatable.
- ‘Money-rich, time-poor’: used to certain parents with not enough time to commit as governors. At the opposite end of the spectrum are ‘time-poor, money-poor’ parents.
- ‘pressed men aren’t often the best men’: refers to the idea those persons with little time to commit to a voluntary role will be of little value and impact to the role.
- ‘tough, you are back in the club’: refers to when a school is brought within local government remit or hard federated arrangement, and the disappointment of some governors who felt too much autonomy and school budget was given up in the process.
- ‘plough our own furrow’: refers to the desire for a school to be independent, financially and administratively, of local government intervention, or can refer to the excess or surplus brought to the role of school governor by middle-class parents, parents with loud voices, good contacts and sharp elbows who need little support from other governors on how to best articulate their demands.
- ‘the tails wagging the dog’: sometimes headteacher’s responses can feel automated, scripted, but that is usually because of the preparation that has gone into the delivery.
- ‘little Johnny’ or ‘Johnny’: an allegorical term often used to signify parents’ obsession with own child, and the difficulty for some parents to take a dispassionate, detached, utilitarian view in their role as governors, and consider the needs of all children at the school.
- ‘spanner in the works’: when someone or something disturbs the natural order or desired order of things already established by others, in this case new governors asking searching or ‘inappropriate’ questions, demanding too much.
- ‘they make a rod for their own back’: to omit information or give into certain demands which in turn makes things worse for that person or organization later on.
- ‘from the coalface to the governing body’: coalface refers when people are engaged in work at an active rather than a theoretical level, in this case staff governors who are engaged in service delivery or parent governors who are also service users with a unique perspective of the school, its responsiveness, communication channels, PTA structures, etc.
- ‘hobby-horse’: a favourite topic or gripe that one frequently refers to or dwells on, a fixation, in this case parent governors who obsess over particular issues which they seek to benefit directly from reforming, improving, etc.
- ‘the whole gamut’: the complete range or scope of something, in this case used to describe the legal responsibility and strategic oversight of governors.
- ‘the buck stops here’: responsibility is not passed on beyond this point, referring to the range of responsibilities encompassed through the role of governors.
- ‘hit and miss’: parent governors are elected and not recruited for their skills, so their added value is unpredictable.
- ‘deadwood’: refers to people or objects ineffectual to the task set, superfluous, useless or burdensome, in this case, some long-standing governors.
- ‘in the thick of it’: to have direct involvement and be totally engrossed in something, in this case, to be involved in policy formulation and implementation, to be involved in day-to-day operation as well as strategic.
- ‘time servers’: aka deadwood, individuals who bring no added value to discussions and may be brought on as ‘local worthies’.
- ‘sound of axes being ground’: when partisanship takes over, particular individuals chase particular agendas at the expense of a wider commitment to the big issues.
- ‘tribune of the people’: refers to the title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic who were afforded powers of intervention to veto actions of magistrates and to act legally on behalf of plebeians.
- ‘a line drawn in the sand at the edge of the sea’ (origin: Michel Foucault): useful to refer to the blurred boundary between strategic and operational duties.
- ‘I just go with flow’: refers to the unquestioning disposition of some governors, their refusal or unwillingness to ask certain questions of other governors, about processes, finances, etc.
- ‘Ofsted is hovering’: refers to immanent presence of Ofsted as a shadow or spectre governing education at a distance, an ‘absent presence’ in Derridean terms.
- ‘wrong end of the stick’: to misunderstand something, a situation, context, argument, implication, etc.
- ‘where things are starting to drift’: when something or someone is not following a plan or strategy correctly, when something requires intervention to bring it back on course, in line with set outcomes.
- ‘you can’t let the headteacher steamroller you’: when the headteacher dominates a situation or person, overrules a decision without proper consultation or consideration.
- ‘management by agreement’: refers to a particular leadership style practised by the headteacher, one in which the head consults governors over key management decisions, and leads on the basis on joint- or shared decision making informed by consensus.
- ‘management by direction’: refers to particular leadership style practised by the headteacher, namely hierarchical leadership, where little or no decisions concerning management are led by consultation or consensus, but rather the autonomy of the head.
- ‘a responsibility too far’ (a play on the idiom ‘a bridge too far’): refers to responsibilities or remit considered too challenging, ambitious, over-reaching, time-consuming or insurmountable from the perspective of some governors, such as chair of committee as opposed to regular governor who sits on the full governing body.
- ‘fine tune’: refers to the ability of the chair to run a meeting effectively and efficiency, in a way that is participative as well as consultative, ensuring everyone is giving the opportunity to speak (but also putting a polite stop to drawn-out debates with no end or resolution in sight), creating a welcoming, engaging and unintimidating surrounding to summon less confident governors to contribute should they wish to, to create a dialogue or conversation that is formal and run according to agenda, but which is also relaxed, inviting and reflective.
- ‘senior clique’: refers to the idea that within any governing body there is a small leadership team or core of governors usually consisting of four people who lead on key decisions, are committed to designing and formulating higher-order governance strategy, are chairs of committees, sometimes called ‘the Big Four’ or ‘leadership team’, the bearers of technical-industry, local government, business and/or legal knowledge, might include local councillors, business owners, solicitors, accountants or finance directors, etc.
