Description: As part of an Applied Educational Research Scheme in Scotland (www.aers.ac.uk), a group of researchers drawn from universities and local education authorities is investigating changes in school management and governance in Scotland since 1999 when education became the sole responsibility of the Scottish Executive under the direction of a Scottish Parliament. The task of the research group is to investigate how policy has developed in this area over the last six years and to explore the effects of policy implementation in schools. The aim of the research is to provide practitioners and others with a situated description of policy related processes in order to develop greater understanding and to encourage greater participation and debate in such processes. The research is being conducted at two levels a) an exploration of policy formation at national level and b) an exploration of policy formation and implementation at local level through a series of longitudinal case studies in six local authorities. This paper concentrates on the task of of exploring policy formation at national level.An initial scoping of the documentary evidence suggests that policy formation in school management and governance in Scotland reflects the use of 'globalised' solutions to modernising public services through the adoption of managerial strategies to bring about change. This is exemplified in the recent re-structuring of the schools' work force (SE, 2001) which has been introduced alongside other centralised strategies to re-define teacher professionalism - developments which are mirrored in the rest of the UK. However there is also a 'new' strand post-devolution, identifiable as a europeanised and globalised theme, about nation-building and the 'revival' of democracy. It is the latter which represents the biggest disjuncture in policy terms between pre and post-devolution aspirations for the education service in Scotland.An initial survey has identified four key strands pertaining to school management and governance published in documents produced by the Scottish Executive and other bodies with a key role in policy formation: o professionalism/career (professional standards, accreditation, induction, annual review, CPD) o quality assurance (development/improvement planning, school/authority self-evaluation, inspection, targets) o curricular framework (guidelines on curriculum, guidance and pastoral functions, inclusion) o workforce structure (promoted posts, roles, working conditions, job sizing, employment of para-professionals)Within and between these strands there are various disjunctures and inconsistencies in the documentation indicating that there is a degree of contestation and fragmentation which was not characteristic of policy formation in Scotland pre-devolution (Humes, 1986 and 1999). Methodology: The group aims to undertake a two stage analysis of documents produced by the Scottish Executive and various national agencies during the period 1999 - 2006 which will involve:o discourse analysis and investigation of inter-textuality within the set of documents - looking at key discourses within, across and between the various texts to illuminate concepts such as contestation andinfluence and how globalised themes in school management and governance are being used and adapted in Scotland:o an historical-materialist-relational perspective (using activity and actor network theory) to determine the key artefacts, position them in sequence and map the relationships between them as indicated by movements of text and the engagement and movement of authors (tracking activity set relationships as well as textual relationships in a longitudinal analysis.) Conclusions: We hope to develop a detailed and situated description of developments within this area of policy both as a resource for other researchers and for practitioners with an interest in school management and governance and policy formation processes. We will also be looking, through the longitudinal case studies in the local authorities, to provide illustrations which will enable us to provide some insights into the policy track that is supposed to run from national level, to local authority and then to schools and the teachers and pupils in them.