Organizing Education

The organizational dimensions of education are often overlooked amid normative debates about what should be learned and how learning ought to take place. Yet contemporary controversies surrounding the “failures” of educational institutions carry profound organizational implications. As the needs and resources surrounding education change, so too do the institutional arrangements through which qualifications are acquired, transmitted, and recognized. Digitalization, migration, and shrinking public resources for education represent major organizational challenges that are met with varying combinations of resistance, adaptation, and innovation.

At the same time, education is increasingly shaped by actors and governance arrangements that extend beyond national boundaries. The growing influence of international organizations, transnational policy networks, and global rankings raises questions about accountability and organizational control. Educational organizations thus face not only the challenge of adapting to societal change but also the predicament of being organized by others, or what Brunsson, Gustafsson Nordin, and Tamm Hallström (2022) describe as “un-responsible organization.”

This session bridges disciplinary boundaries between the sociology of education and organizational sociology to address a shared concern: the reorganization of education. Organizing education refers not only to schools, universities, kindergartens, but also to broader and increasingly hybrid learning environments, semi-organized settings, and non-formal educational arrangements that complement or challenge conventional systems of learning.

• How is education organized under conditions of uncertainty?
• What is being organized, by whom, and for whom?
• What modes of evaluation shape the (re)organization of education?
• Which values are pursued, contested, or rejected?
• What compromises emerge in the standardization and credentialing of learning?