Education Policy

Process, Themes and Impact

Les Bell, Howard Stevenson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134183852
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The study of educational leadership makes little sense unless it is in relation to who the leaders are, how they are leading, what is being led, and with what effect. Based on the premise that learning is at the heart of leadership and that leaders themselves should be learners, the Leadership for Learning series explores the connections between educational leadership, policy, curriculum, human resources and accountability. Each book in the series approaches its subject matter through a three-fold structure of process, themes and impact.

Series Editors - Clive Dimmock, Mark Brundrett and Les Bell

As global pressures focus increasing attention on the outcomes of education policy and on their implications for economic prosperity and social citizenship, the experience of each individual learner is decisively shaped by the wider policy environment. However, there is often an underdeveloped understanding of how education policy is formed, what drives it and how it impacts on schools and colleges. This book explicitly makes these connections and links them to the wider challenges of educational leadership in a modern context.

Education Policy is divided into three sections, which examine:

• the development of policy at the levels of the nation state and individual institutions
• the forces that shape policies with emphasis on human capital theory, citizenship and social justice and accountability
• research-based case studies highlighting the application of policy in a range of situations.

The book provides a valuable resource for students, practitioners, middle managers and educational leaders in all sectors, both in the UK and internationally, who are engaged on masters and doctoral degrees, or undertaking leadership training and preparation programmes.

Part I
Policy and education

The first part of this book considers the nature of policy and the particular nature of education policy within its wider social, political and economic contexts. It considers theories of the state, the levels at which policy is developed and implemented, issues related to power and influence in policy formulation and the importance of values in shaping and implementing policy. An interest in the macro-policy environment inevitably focuses attention on the role of the state. Although there is significant variation in state formations between nations, the state almost universally has a key role in the provision and/or regulation of education services. ‘State policy’, whether national or local (or increasingly supra-national), therefore has a considerable impact on shaping what happens on a daily basis in schools and colleges, and the lived experiences of those who study and work in those establishments. The role and influence of the state in educational policy is explored further in Chapter 2, as is the relationship between the state and individual educational institutions. To what extent do those who work in educational institutions enjoy the latitude to generate and develop institutional policies that may be at odds with state agendas? In this first chapter, it is argued that policy development is not a self-contained, linear or rational process – rather it is likely to occur at a range of levels almost simultaneously. This has implications for the organization of educational institutions and for their leadership and management.

1
What is education policy?

Introduction

In recent years interest in ‘leadership’ has burgeoned and consequently studies of educational leadership have proliferated. Research around the world is contributing to an increasingly rich understanding of how educational institutions are led and managed. However, it is important to recognize that educational leadership does not exist in a vacuum – it is exercised in a policy context, shaped decisively by its historical and cultural location. It is important, therefore, that studies of leadership adequately reflect this wider policy environment:

it is essential to place the study and analysis of school leadership in its socio-historical context and in the context of the moral and political economy of schooling. We need to have studies of school leadership which are historically located and which are brought into a relationship with wider political, cultural, economic and ideological movements in society.

(Grace 1995:5)

Grace (1995) argues against a reductionist approach to the study of educational leadership, in which quasi-scientific management solutions are developed with little regard for contextual specificity. There is also a tendency to detach studies of leadership from studies of power (Hatcher 2005). Rather, it is important to recognize that educational leadership is shaped decisively by its wider environment, and by the power relations therein. The nature of that environment will be formed by a multiplicity of factors unique to each institution – these may range from local ‘market’ conditions to the impact of global economic pressures. What is certain is that within education, across phases and across continents, the policy context impacts decisively on shaping the institutional environment. A key purpose of this volume is to explore the relationships between policy development at an institutional level, the impact of local context and the influence on these of the macro-policy environment. An interest in the macro-policy environment inevitably focuses attention on the role of the state. Although there is significant variation between nation states in virtually all countries the state has a key role in the provision and/or regulation of education services. ‘State policy’, whether national or local (or increasingly supranational), therefore has a considerable impact on shaping what happens on a daily basis in schools and colleges, and the lived experiences of those who study and work in those establishments. The role and influence of the state in educational policy is explored further in Chapter 2.

All those working in schools and colleges must make sense of their policy context. Policy agendas require a response as those in the institution are faced with the task of implementing policy directives. Those in senior leadership positions face a particular challenge as they often represent the interface between the organization and the external policy environment. Key decisions must be made relating to the interpretation and implementation of external policy agendas – those decisions will in turn reflect a complex mix of factors including personal values, available resources and stakeholder power and perceptions. Understanding and anticipating policy therefore becomes a key feature of ‘leadership’ (Day et al. 2000) – understanding where policies come from, what they seek to achieve, how they impact on the learning experience and the consequences of implementation are all essential features of educational leadership. To some extent it may be argued that in recent years studies of ‘leadership’ have supplanted studies of policy. This in part reflects the emergence of a managerialist agenda in which institutional leadership and management is often reduced to a technical study of the ‘one best way’ to deliver education policy objectives determined elsewhere within the socio-political environment and legitimated by a dominant discourse which may be located outside the immediate sphere of education (Thrupp and Willmott 2003). Policy is treated uncritically and denuded of its values, neglecting to assess how policy impacts differentially on different social groups. The importance of policy, as distinct from leadership, is recognized in this volume, but a simple dichotomy between leadership or policy is avoided – the key issue is to explore the relationship between the interdependent themes of leadership, policy and power. This volume acknowledges the importance of leadership, but seeks to make the case that leadership must be located within a policy context. A failure to fully understand the complex ways in which policy shapes, and is shaped by, leadership fails adequately to explain the actions and practices of leaders at both the organizational and operational levels.

Key practitioners in schools and colleges, rather than being passive implementers of policies determined and decided elsewhere, are able to shape national policy at an early stage, perhaps through their involvement in interest groups, professional associations or their favoured position in government policy forums and think-tanks. In other cases, influence may be exerted at an institutional level as the organizational principles and operational practices through which policy is implemented are formed and re-formed. Leaders in educational institutions, therefore, are both policy implementers and policy generators.

For these reasons it can be more accurate to describe a process of policy development, rather than use the more traditional, but less helpful, term of policy making. Sharp distinctions between policy generation and implementation can be unhelpful as they fail to account for the way in which policy is formed and re-formed as it is being ‘implemented’. The term policy development also more accurately conveys the organic way in which policy emerges. This is not to argue that policies develop in entirely serendipitous ways. On the contrary, an important theme of this book is to argue that policy is decisively shaped by powerful structural forces of an economic, ideological and cultural nature. Nevertheless the crucial role of human agency in the development of policy must be recognized. Furthermore, if institutional leaders do not mechanically implement policy from the state, nor do those studying and working in educational institutions mechanically implement the policies of their institutional leaders. Policy is political: it is about the power to determine what is done. It shapes who benefits, for what purpose and who pays. It goes to the very heart of educational philosophy – what is education for? For whom? Who decides? The point is well made by Apple:

Formal schooling by and large is organized and controlled by the government. This means that by its very nature the entire schooling process – how it is paid for, what goals it seeks to attain and how these goals will be measured, who has power over it, what textbooks are approved, who does well in schools and who does not, who has the right to ask and answer these questions, and so on – is by definition political. Thus, as inherently part of a set of political institutions, the educational system will constantly be in the middle of crucial struggles over the meaning of democracy, over definitions of legitimate authority and culture, and over who should benefit the most from government policies and practices.

(Apple 2003:1)

The questions posed by Apple are steeped in values – the values of individuals and the values embedded in wider societal institutions and structures. It is through these values that policy develops. This conception of policy seeks to reflect the complexity of the policy-development process. The argument here is that it is not possible to understand what is happening in our educational institutions without developing an understanding of policy that reflects both its multi-stage and multi-tier character. This process may be considered to have neither a beginning nor an end. Schools and colleges are constantly engaged in developing their own policies as they seek to both pursue their own internal objectives and respond to the external policy environment. Policy making as a process is therefore not something that happens exclusively ‘up there’, but is something that happens ‘down here’ too. Those working in schools and colleges are simultaneously engaged in making sense of the policies of others, and forming policies of their own – two processes that in reality are more than interdependent – they are separate elements of a single process. Developing a conceptual understanding of these processes is a pre-requisite for developing a better informed theoretical and empirical understanding of what is happening in our schools and colleges. This provides the basis for the study of policy – policy analysis.

Policy analysis as the study of policy

The central concern of this volume, policy analysis, can take a number of forms, for example the development of broad analytical models through which the policy process can be understood and interpreted, analyses of a range of policy issues or critiques of specific policies. Gordon et al. (1997) identify several types of policy research, each of which falls within a continuum which they characterize as either analysis for policy, or analysis of policy. This is represented in Table 1.1.

Policy Advocacy – refers to research which aims to promote and advance either a single specific policy, or a set of related policies.

In some cases policy advocates argue from their findings toward a particular conclusion, which is offered as a recommendation. In other cases, where a very strong commitment to a particular course of action predates the research, whatever analysis was conducted may have been designed, consciously or unconsciously, to support the case to be argued.

(Gordon et al. 1997:5)

Information for policy – this type of research aims to provide policy makers with information and advice. It is premised on the need for action (tackling a commonly perceived problem, for example) and may suggest the introduction of a new policy or the modification of an existing one.

Policy monitoring and evaluation – this is a common form of policy research, particularly in the current climate of high level accountability and the need to justify actions undertaken. Gordon et al. (1997) point out that public agencies frequently perform monitoring and evaluation functions in

Table 1.1 Analysis for policy and analysis of policy

respect of their own activities, although some may be facile and uncritical. Most monitoring and evaluation research is concerned with assessing impact, although it can go beyond this with a deliberate aim of influencing the development of future policy. Evaluative research will often make claims to objectivity, but it is important to recognize that ‘evaluation is a motivated behaviour’ (House 1973:6) and the highly politicized environment within which policy evaluation research takes place can present very distinct methodological challenges for researchers of educational policy (Walford 1994 and 2001).

Analysis of policy determination – here the emphasis is very much on the policy process – not on the impact of policy, but on how policy developed in the precise way that it did. Such research can give a vital insight into explaining how and why specific policies emerged in the final form they adopted.

Analysis of policy content – Gordon et al. (1997) argue that this research is conducted more for academic interest rather than public impact and here the emphasis is on understanding the origin, intentions and operation of specific policies. The common approach to this type of research is to utilize a case-study format and this raises important questions about the appropriateness of methods in policy research (Halpin and Troyna 1994).

These distinctions can be helpful in identifying approaches to policy research, but they do not, on their own, shed light on the complexity of policy development processes. Policy analysis within education must be capable of recognizing the many different levels at which policy development takes place, the myriad range of educational institutions involved and the importance of specific cultural contexts. For example, legislation passed by a central state is clearly an example of ‘government policy’. A policy developed at an individual state school may fall within a broader heading of public policy, but what of policy developed in a private school, independent from, but regulated by, the central state? A model of policy analysis must be capable of illuminating policy development in all these diverse and various contexts. Taylor et al. (1997) suggest that a simple summary of policy analysis is the study of what governments do, why and with what effects. This can be a helpful starting point as long as it is recognized that such analyses must embrace institutions at all levels of the education system and must be capable of including institutions that are effectively part of a public system, even if they are not formally in the public sector. Taylor et al. (1997:37) go on to identify a number of questions that c...

Table of contents

• Related titles
• Leadership for Learning
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Series editors’ foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Policy and education
• Part II Themes in educational policy
• Part III The impact of educational policy
• Bibliography
• Index