Over the last 20 years, international attempts to raise educational
standards and improve opportunities for all children have accelerated
and proliferated. This has generated a state of constant change and an
unrelenting flood of initiatives, changes and reforms that need to be
'implemented' by schools. In response to this, a great deal of attention
has been given to evaluating 'how well' policies are realised in
practice - implemented! Less attention has been paid to understanding
how schools actually deal with these multiple, and sometimes
contradictory, policy demands; creatively working to interpret policy
texts and translate these into practices, in real material conditions
and varying resources - how they are enacted! Based on a long-term
qualitative study of four 'ordinary' secondary schools, and working on
the interface of theory with data, this book explores how schools enact,
rather than implement, policy. It focuses on:
-
- contexts of 'policy work' in schools;
- teachers as policy subjects;
- teachers as policy actors;
- policy texts, artefacts and events;
- standards, behaviour and learning policies.
This book offers an original and very grounded analysis of how schools
and teachers do policy. It will be of interest to undergraduate and
postgraduate students of education, education policy and social policy,
as well as school leaders, in the UK and beyond.
