NGO–school interactions as portrayed by elite and popular press in Israel and England

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to map, characterize and conceptualize the press discourse of NGO–school interactions within public education in Israel and in England. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a corpus of articles published in key elite and popular daily newspapers in Israel and in England. The data were analyzed through two complementary methodologies, framing analysis (FA) and critical discourse analysis (CDA). Findings Significant differences were observed in the way the topic is framed in the articles, in particular between the different types of newspapers. The elite newspapers (Ha’aretz and The Guardian) tended to frame the events in a thematic manner even when they contained episodic discussions, while the popular newspapers (Yedioth Aharonoth and The Times) tended to cover the events episodically with no thematic coverage whatsoever. CDA of news items identified two major themes: financial issues, and problematization vs normalization discourse. Consistent with the FA, CDA revealed differences in the approaches advocated by popular and elite news outlets in covering news concerning NGO–school relations in each of the examined countries. Originality/value It is shown how popular newspapers offer the masses that depend on it a narrow and inferior coverage, of the problematic relations formed between NGOs and schools. A discussion of possible implications of the findings is presented, in light of the growing prominence of external entities in public education.