Proceedings of the 50th International Academic Conference, Paris

INTERNATIONALISATION OF ENGLAND INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

HAIXIA HU, JOHN BRYSON, LAUREN ANDRES

Abstract:

England independent schools may be conceptualised as a form of cultural capital that is also involved in internationalisation through the recruitment of overseas pupils to study in the UK, but more recently by the establishment of overseas schools. The first such school was established in 1996 (Bunnell, 2008). Up to 2018, there 47 independent schools have established overseas schools around the world (ISC, 2018), but there has been no detailed research into the emergence, growth and development of the internationalisation strategies of England independent schools. This thesis is the first research project to explore the emergence of England based Translocal Educational Enterprises (TEEs) as providers of nursery, primary and secondary education. These are translocal as there is an exchange between two sites – the England school and a school located in another country. TEEs are providers of services. They are complex hybrid organisational forms. On the one hand, England schools are charities that must demonstrate that they are providing wider social benefits. On the other hand, the overseas operations of these schools are not charities, but are managed by for-profit trading companies. The overseas schools must meet local regulations regarding education provision. This means that the export of educational service provision reflects a complex process of localised customisation. Schools must balance their overseas activities with the on-going provision of educational services in the UK. This highlights the on-going professionalization of management in England independent schools as national providers of educational services evolve in to TEEs. The spatial economic activities of England independent schools explicitly imply in the evolutionary economic geography whereas the utilisation of schools’ resources is the capability of schools. This highlights the importance of blending the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and evolutionary economic geography as an internationalisation strategy. To understand the international strategies of TEEs, the RBV of the firm (Penrose, 1959, Barney, 1991) and evolutionary economic geography (Phelps, 2016) are combined to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the emergence, adaptation and evolution of TEEs.

Keywords: International Strategy, Cultural Capital, Revolution, Translocal Educational Enterprises (TEEs), Hybrid Organisation, Educational Services, Evolutionary Economic Geography and RBV

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2019.050.018

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