Governance and school boards in non-state schools in Australia

Abstract

The paper explores governance arrangements in non-state school in Australia, using 17 interviews in six schools. The focus is on board composition, structure and reporting. Useful contributions about innovative practice are identified. School boards may benefit from implementing more stakeholder engagement. Existing models of school boards from international state school literature, such as the democracy and trustee models, were useful for describing some aspects of non-state school governance, but a faith model is also suggested. Further research could operationalise governance elements to conduct a quantitative investigation with more schools and more informants. The paper adds to the expanding international literature on school governance by researching a country that has received little governance attention. The paper focuses on a significant area for school leadership: school boards in non-state schools.