The practical implementation of policy assumes that practitioners at various levels have to implement the policy based on policymakers' expectations. However, educational policy is a complex process that involves negotiation or struggle between different groups (Ozga, 2000). Therefore policy implementation problems should not attributed to policymakers' unclear instructions or to policymakers'  or actors’ unwillingness to alter their behaviour.

This symposium will present different aspects of policy process in three different countries: Portugal, Scotland and Turkey. Initially the symposium will look to address the importance of students’ voices and participation in the policy process. There is a limited number of reports of international initiatives  in which the students’ voices are considered and in the education policy process  it is important to explore to what extend pupils voices are heard.This symposium will also discuss policy implementation based on sociomaterial approaches such as those developed by complexity theory and actor-network theory (Fenwick and Edwards, 2013).The perceptions and the interactions of important policy actors will be presented and discussed highlighting the messiness, the contradictions and confusion involved In policy implementation. Furthermore, the symposium will analyse policy change reflecting on the policy process and more specifically the aspects of problem definition, policy formulation and policy implementation. In addition, some suggestions in terms of policy implementation will be presented.

This symposium will offer an international perspective on the policy process providing perspectives from three different countries . The policy problems will be discussed inviting reflection on different aspects of policy implementation and on possible barriers.  

Fenwick, T. and Edwards, R. (2013) 'Performative Ontologies: Sociomaterial approaches to researching adult education and lifelong learning'. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 4(1), pp. 49-63. Ozga, J. (2000) Policy Research in Educational Settings: Contested terrain. Buckingham: Open University Press.