Session Information
Contribution
Description: While knowledge is constantly being shaped, re-shaped and transformed the concepts and issues relevant to what we know about and how we identify Access and Engagement (A & E) to knowledge stand largely undefined in education policy. Preliminary analysis of policy statements related to access to knowledge and engagement with its various forms, shows that education policy does not readily clarify the meanings or provide clear situational/contextual policy for access and engagement with knowledge in education systems. This raises questions about the inclusiveness of policy, the way that education policy guides the effective implementation of A & E to knowledge and the educational settings in which the processes of knowledge transformation occur. The paper presents a preliminary analysis of current key policy documents and points to access and engagement as problematic concepts unlikely to enter implementation in meaningful ways unless they are clarified and defined. A & E in knowledge act as levers for educational attainment and knowledge appropriation at the individual and social levels. In policy, the terms equate with concepts of inclusion, social justice and equity, however how the concepts are interconnected and related remain undefined. The paper aims to open the way for more transparent policy centred on defining and delineating the meaning of A & E and discusses how transparent policy can help in our knowledge construction and its transformation.
Methodology: Policy analysis will be conducted using CAQDAS (computer assisted qualitative data software). The data is gathered by collecting all the instances where the two terms are used in selected policy texts. This evidence based policy research will show the extent to which and the context in which these terms are used. The analysis of data is framed by critical policy analysis. Critical policy analysis focuses on analysing policy from a public interest perspective emphasising the relationship between syndicating public knowledge and awareness with professional practice. It presents an alternative to instrumentalist approaches to policy making because it delves into the 'hidden' aspects of policy so as to lay out to the what access and engagement looks like in policy and prompt discussion about the educational contexts and conditions in which the processes of knowledge transformation occur.
Conclusions: The research will define and delimit the importance of access and engagement in education policy providing ways of building better understandings between access and engagement to knowledge as presented in policy and the implications for making knowledge more accessible through practice. The research will expose barriers that exist in the implementation of A & E in education and the way that these barriers hamper knowledge appropriation and putting policy into action.
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