Discourse analysis as theory,method, and epistemology in studies of education policy

ABSTRACT

Discourse has featured in studies of educational policy as an analytic and methodological tool, theoretical frame, realm of implication, and even a foundational definition of educational policy itself (e.g.) Despite the centrality of discourse as a frame for exploring educational policy and its implications, the ways that discourse is defined or operationalized in educational policy research are often left implicit which can lead to murky relations to larger onto-epistemological questions of how we construct findings from data as well as the nature of policy. In this interpretive analysis, we synthesize a corpus of 37 peer-reviewed journal articles that bring together educational policy and analyses of discourse from varying theoretical and methodological perspectives in order to better understand the breadth and scope of how discourse is defined and operationalized in studies of educational policy, including in ways that are sometimes incommensurate with authors' stated theoretical and methodological positions. After first laying the theoretical groundwork for analyses of discourse in the field of educational policy, we then illustrate how discourse analysis is used differently, and sometimes inconsistently, within contested paradigmatic landscapes. We conclude with an argument for discussions across theoretical frameworks and methodological paradigms about how the concept of discourse lends itself to different epistemological vantage points on educational policy.     

Stability and change as reflected in teachers' educational fantasies

The article aims to reveal teachers' dispositions concerning stability and change in the field of schooling and to suggest some possible connection to the social space. Forty teachers who attended a principals' training course were asked to write educational fantasies regarding their 'dream school'. A content analysis of the fantasies showed similarities, such as: respecting student diversity, core curriculum and subjects of choice, a variety of teaching methods and a rich physical environment, and differences regarding: time and space configuration, classroom size and the schoolyard and recreation area. Most (75%) of the desired models view the school as preparing the student for society, while 25% perceive it as a place for the fulfilment of students' potential. The conclusion is that educational reforms are likely to succeed if they follow the trend toward more diversity, choice and pluralism, but at the same time respect the areas of difference. Further research is needed to elaborate on the educational fantasy as a research tool.     

The development of science teachers' knowledge on models and modelling: promoting,characterizing, and understanding the process

Models play an important role in science education. However, previous research has revealed that science teachers' content knowledge, curricular knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge about models and modelling are often incomplete or inadequate. A research project was conducted that aimed at promoting and gaining an understanding of the development of beginning science teachers' knowledge in this area. The teachers, who were enrolled in a teacher's training programme, participated in a special course on models and modelling, and conducted a research project in their classes about this theme. The data gathered in this project support the discussion to the extent that both the activities of the course and the conducting of and reflection on their research projects contributed to the development of teachers' knowledge. From the results, we propose some guidelines for educational researchers interested in this area.     

Action Research,the State and Legitimation in Brunei Darussalam

The introduction of postgraduate programmes at the Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam indicates that educational research will play a central role in teacher education. While there is widespread agreement on the appropriateness of action research, little consideration has been given to the degree to which it is compatible with cultural and political expectations of the teacher's role. This paper argues that rather than improve educational practice as envisioned by constructivists, action research may be used by the state to legitimize existing educational policies. Since schools are a major socialization agency in this small, Malay-Islamic state, it will be difficult for teachers to modify their traditional teaching and problem-solving strategies, let alone question educational policies. The paper suggests that when interpreted within a broader political framework, action research is likely to be appropriated by the state to delimit research and legitimize existing policies and social arrangements of the school, thereby strengthening the status quo.     

Moving Beyond Collaboration: Re-describing research relationships with classroom teachers

Drawing on my own difficult experience as a well-intentioned educational researcher working in collaboration with an elementary school teacher, this article highlights some of the dilemmas and complexities of collaboration with classroom teachers. Specifically, I raise questions about a previously underexplored yet surprisingly powerful factor in collaborative educational research: the language we use to talk about research relationships. I offer an interpretation of a recent 'collaborative' study that positions our difficulties as a conceptual-language problem rooted in our severely limited vocabulary for discussing and understanding research relationships. I conclude the article with a call for the development of a richer, fuller range of terms to describe research currently labeled 'collaborative'.     

Values in Post-compulsory Education--the divide between public statements,private discourse and operational practices

This article is a set of reflections based on research into the secondary school/further education college interface over the past five years. The research highlighted a number of issues relating to values and management in post-compulsory education. These issues will be explored in the article. The setting up of the quasi-market in post-compulsory education has led to a tension between liberal democratic and economic instrumentalist values. For example, the officially stated policies may emphasise collaboration between school and colleges yet at the operational level school leaders accuse colleges of 'poaching' pupils and college leaders accuse schools of 'hanging on' to pupils. There exists a discrepancy between the market-led managerialism which leads to young people being treated as commodities and the alternative market view of young people as potential or actual clients with educational or training needs to be met. There also exist alternative discourses on the nature of young people themselves which reflect value positions. The same young people perceived themselves as adults making rational decisions about their own futures. It is important that leaders and managers in post-compulsory education consider these differing value positions.     

"The Cow Loves to Learn": The Hao-Xue-Xin Learning Model as a Reflection of the Cultural Relevance of Zhima Jie,China's Sesame Street

This study was part of the formative research conducted for the children's educational TV program, Zhima Jie, a Chinese adaptation of Sesame Street. Our particular goal was to examine the cultural basis and relevance o f Zhima Jie as a learning tool for Chinese children. Four hundred children aged 3-6 drawn from representative backgrounds participated in the study. Data were collected on relevant aspects of the Zhime Jie curriculum: preschoolers' desires for books and learning materials, and their reasoning and affect about learning. Results showed that the vast majority of children desired books and learning materials with a number of them also articulating reasons for that desire. While differences in gender and mother's education were small and inconsistent, disadvantaged children were more likely to desire books and learning materials than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds. Children also showed a greater tendency for such desires and expressions as their age increased. These findings reflected Confucian beliefs about learning, and they provided support for the cultural relevance of the educational efforts of Zhima Jie in China.     

Toward a Critical Deliberative Strategy for Addressing Ideology in Educational Policy Processes

Is it possible and desirable to transcend ideological perspectives within educational policy research and decision making? If so, what would it entail and how should we proceed? At heart, the relation among research, ideology, and policy may be characterized as a complex and interconnected web. The common view of this web is that good social and educational policy decisions are generally made based on research evidence and largely independent of ideological positions. However, it is rather more likely that research and political ideology interact throughout the research process, from the choice of research question, to the organization that provides funding for the research, to the way that findings are interpreted and used. The purpose of this article is to propose a promising strategy that can be utilized by policymakers in the process of making educational policy decisions.     

Perry,Fred L & Nichols,Joe D (2015) Understanding research in education Routledge (New York & London) isbn 978‐1‐138‐77642‐5 243 pp £34.99 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138776425/

Ostensibly, this textbook was written for those who want and need to be consumers of educational research. It serves that readership extremely well. Equally, however, I would warmly recommend it to those preparing their first educational submissions for publication; they'll find splendid advice here about what to do—and what not to do. If this book is very likely to be relevant to your work, I strongly suggest that you buy a copy. John Cowan     

The Social Construction of School Exclusion Rates: Implications for evaluation methodology

Experience from a three-year Home Office funded evaluation of a project intended to reduce school exclusions is used to explore methodological dilemmas raised by the current emphasis upon 'evidence-based' policy formation. The social construction of school exclusion rates poses problems of reliability and validity, especially when such rates are simultaneously being used for target setting. In principle, the concept of 'evidence-based' can refer to a wide variety of research questions and appropriate research methodologies. Despite this, moves towards interpreting 'evidence-based' as predominantly measurement and outcomes oriented can be found both in government evaluation guidelines and in procedures for systematic reviews of research. Given the complexity of educational innovations, any neglect of research into the processes of change in naturalistic settings will not only lead to a restricted awareness of a project's impact but also to a failure to understand what certain apparent outcomes actually mean.     

Assessment of Gerontology Programs: A Comprehensive,Strategic Approach

To assure that gerontology students meet their educational objectives and are prepared to assume professional roles, gerontological program assessment is imperative. This paper situates gerontological academic program assessment within the framework of the American Association of Higher Education's principles of assessment. It presents clear guidelines for the assessment of gerontological programs and courses. These guidelines incorporate indirect and direct assessment methods to examine both processes and outcomes of gerontological education. Also presented are guidelines for the communication of results, recommendations, and plans for follow-up to stakeholders.     

A guide for the perplexed: Scientific educational research, methodolatry, and the gold versus platinum standards

The paper opens by characterizing recent discourse about empirical educational research as the “new Babel”-critics, using different theoretical vocabularies and making different deep assumptions about the nature of social life, are failing to communicate with each other. After locating some of the critical positions on a left-right continuum, the main discussion focusses upon the end of this continuum where there are located the recent attempts to restore rigor to educational research by using the so-called “gold standard” of randomized field trials. It is argued that positions at this end of the continuum misrepresent the nature of science, and some examples are briefly mentioned in order to covey the point that it is fruitful to view scientists as making convincing cases, cases that appeal to a wide variety of evidence. This assessment of scientific cases is called the “platinum standard”.     

Responsible Research and Innovation as a Novel Approach to Guide Educational Impact of Mind,Brain, and Education Research

We propose a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework to improve the alignment between mind, brain, and education (MBE) research, the educational practice, and other societal stakeholders. RRI is an approach that has successfully been used in different research fields, but not yet in MBE research. After substantiating the need for, and possibilities of using this framework within MBE research, we report a case study to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of RRI within an MBE context. This case study entails developing an educational intervention to improve learners' sense of agency regarding their own learning processes using neurofeedback. Using RRI, we found that societal stakeholders (teenagers, parents, and teachers) anticipate different potential impacts of this neurotechnology‐based intervention than researchers did, enabling us to adapt the intervention according to these perspectives. This example demonstrates that RRI enables researchers to be reflexive and responsive to the stakeholders needs and values, to ultimately improve the educational and societal value of MBE research.     

Dependence on state funding,local educational opportunities,and access to high school credentials in israel

A major shortcoming of macro-spatial research undertaken to date in Israel pertains to the neglect of state investment-related measures and the extent to which they mediate unequal opportunities to learn (OTL) and educational opportunities between localities. In the present study, OTL refer to class size and high-school tracking patterns. Educational opportunities refer to two measures: the school system's holding power and access to educational credentials. Two specific questions were raised in this respect: first, we looked into the extent to which the size and ethnic stratification of Israeli localities, and their differential dependence on state financial schemes, affect available OTL and educational opportunities. Second, we examined how a locality's OTL affect educational opportunities. The data on which the present study is based are aggregated at locality level and refer to 89 localities, of which 21 were Arab and 78 were Jewish. Bentler's EQS Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) program was applied to test the research questions. The findings suggest that locality characteristics and dependence on state finance directly affect both OTL and educational opportunities. However, the school system's holding power and access to educational credentials is affected by differential mechanisms. On the one hand, locality-level variables and average class size significantly affect the school system's holding power. On the other hand, access to educational credentials is affected primarily by a locality's ethnic affiliation and its dependence on state funding. The implications of these findings for educational policy and reform are then discussed.     

Positive Ignorance: Unknowing as a Tool for Education and Educational Research

Positive ignorance is the putting in to question of, and sometimes moving on from, the knowledge we think we have, and asking where it might be just or helpful to do so. Drawing primarily on the work of Barbara Johnson, this article shows how the notion of positive ignorance might be offered as a tool in the context of education and educational research. Partly a critical development of Richard Smith's argument in ‘The Virtues of Unknowing’, I attempt to understand ‘unknowing’ as an active rather than passive form of ‘not knowing’, in a manner that challenges some aspects of ‘the virtues of unknowing’ and its concomitant epistemological and ethical positions, not least those tied to Smith's advocacy for what he calls the ‘well‐stocked mind’. Unknowing, in my reading, is not a dispositional acceptance of the desirability of nonknowledge, instead, unknowing is a means of epistemological resistance, especially against that which, often with very real social and political consequences, is presented as self‐evident.     

The Cuban Model for Higher Education of Older Adults: Generativity,Social Commitment,and Collaborative Work

The present work is an approach to study the Cuban model for educating the elderly, and its aim is to describe the main features of the experience developed by this country. The University of the Third Age is more than three decades old in Latin America, but none of the countries in the region can show a state educational policy regulating and orienting its development. Cuba is the only country that has designed an educational program for older adults at a national level. The model is the most outstanding one among the rest of the countries in the American continent. This research is based on documentary analysis and interviews held with leaders and managers of the Chair for Older Adults, who were located in different towns of Cuba. Results led to a reconstruction of a set of dimensions of the Cuban model, such as the process of institutionalization, syllabus organization, the process of expansion and universalization, and educators' training strategies for elders. Finally, bearing in mind the features of Cuban political organization and gerontological positions, it was possible to draw the future evolution and challenges faced by the Cuban model for educating older adults.     

Challenges for Educational Research: International development,partnerships and capacity building in small states

Educational research is being increasingly challenged for not contributing effectively enough to the improvement of policy and practice worldwide. Critics call for more relevant, cumulative, accessible and cost-effective studies. This paper examines the implications of this contemporary debate for small states, as they engage with increasingly powerful international development agenda's while dealing with their own distinctive educational needs and priorities. Specific attention is given to different conceptions and traditions of educational research; to the potential of participatory and partnership models; to the process of educational research and evaluation capacity building; to the sociopolitical implications of 'genuine' North-South partnerships; and to the lessons that can be learned by all engaged in educational research from the comparative and international experience.     

Mill, the State, and Local Management of Schooling

Contemporary educational policy is centrally concerned with local management of schooling; a practice apparently supported by and following easily from John Stuart Mill's views on liberty and representative government. This paper argues that contemporary practices of local management of schooling are conservative rather than empowering, and that Mill's actual proposals result in an unresolvable paradox in this area. It is then argued that if the State is conceptualised as a relatively autonomous body seeking to secure conditions conducive to accumulation of capital, and if ‘promoting the general welfare’ is formulated in a manner which would not lead inexorably to a free-market capitalist State, then Mill's ideas can provide guidelines for a radical form of democratisation and devolution of power in relation to local management of schooling.     

The qualitative imagination: neoliberalism, ‘blind drift’ and alternative pathways

In this paper, we argue that the non-positivist origins that provided the impetus for the qualitative imagination over the past half century in educational research has undergone subtle, but nevertheless profound change and transformation as neoliberal forms of governmentality have increasingly colonised social and educational research. We examine contemporary responses and challenges to this process from within and outside the academy. It is our contention that unless educational researchers critically engage with these new methodologies, particularly as they are generated by and through social movements, qualitative research is likely to become subject to what CW Mills (Mills) referred to as ‘blind drift'.     

“Thank God for Mississippi!” How Disparagement of the South Has Destroyed Public Schooling in New Orleans—and Beyond

Reasons for neglect of homeschooling in educational research literature are explored. The ideological hostility that occasionally surfaces in policy debates is unlikely to have a major influence on mainstream researchers. An alternative explanation based on Kuhn's concept of normal science is proposed. The dominant paradigm of educational research emphasizes quantitative analyses, standardized settings, and large randomized samples. Unlike homeschooling, public schools, with their state-mandated curricula, age-graded classrooms, and tight regulation of facilities and personnel, provide an ideal setting for this paradigm. The congruence between setting and method is reinforced by universities. The training of licensed public school teachers generates most of the revenue that supports faculty positions in colleges of education. Consequently there is little incentive to study homeschooling. The article concludes that a scientific revolution in educational research is not in prospect. Moving beyond the current neglect will require a change in approach in investigating homeschooling. Rather than focusing on holistic comparisons, aimed at demonstrating the superiority of one educational mode over another, homeschool researchers can gain mainstream attention by investigating factors that affect motivation and learning across educational contexts, thereby generating results that would be useful to both public school teachers and home educators.