Page 32 - Looking_after_school

Looking after school: a critical analysis of personalisation in education

Besides the fact that personalised service is efficient and productive,
it also plays into the very personal aspects of experience, satisfaction,
and participation. It is against this backdrop that advocates such as
Leadbeater (2004; 2008) emphasise how personalised services like
inclusive education go a step further than New Public Management.
As stated earlier, New Public Management is already attentive for the
abstract customer by using numerous techniques, such as evaluating
customer satisfaction and promoting freedom of choice. But the start-
ing point for personalised services is still offering a service in the form
of a product, of course with user or customer support. In personalised
service the user is the main character, and that user will actually pro-
duce the service, together with the expert, which meets their personal
demand. The point of reference then is not the customer, but the co-
producer or even the co-funder. Leadbeater also laid the foundations
of the broad movement of personalised education that was initiated
by David Miliband in the UK (see below).

To summarise, the market economic perspective envisions personalised
service as the core business of the economy. This is also noticeable in
other more regular sectors, such as car production and sales. Educa-
tion then is criticised in so far as it focusses on its own provision of
services instead of co-producing or co-creating with a specific buyer
or user. In this context, the term ‘personalisation’ refers to a policy or
a reform strategy that aims to produce services with individual buyers
or users, and no longer operates merely through taking into account
the customer perspective. The student is in this case not the abstract
figure of the customer, but a concrete, unique person with his own
needs and experiences.

The learner as a creative person – an innovation
perspective

A concept we hear quite often in arguments that are in favour of a
strong, competitive knowledge economy is that of the so-called creative
economy. This concept relates to a perspective that stresses the constant
need for innovation and flexibility, and the advocacy for diversity and
imagination instead of uniformity and the carrying out of operational
tasks. From this perspective on innovation and creativity, both the

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