The starting point for our project ‘comparing and analysing teachers’ expertise’ (CATE) is an approach to comparative pedagogic research that accounts for the socio-cultural and political contexts of education  (Osborn, 2004) and a definition of pedagogy (Alexander 2000, 2010) as relationship between theory and practice of teaching grounded in its cultural context. We explore and theorize how teachers mediate their daily practice, situated as it is in a complex web of demands and influences. Comparing observations in three European countries (England, Denmark and Germany) by a cross-national research team serves as guard against ethnocentricity.

For this purpose Bernstein’s (1990) pedagogical device viewing pedagogy as ‘cultural relay’ and thus linking the macro and the micro is useful. A critical space within this device is the classroom, the field of reproduction and site of the second translation of text by teachers and students (Bernstein 1996). The first translation takes place in the field of recontextualisation and its subfields of pedagogic recontextualisation and official recontextualisation.

In this paper we focus on the link between policy and classroom practice, or to as Bernstein would put it, the link between the  official recontextualisating sub-field and the field of reproduction. The relationship is complex because the policy process itself one of recontextualisation and pedagogising of knowledge and requires a distinction between intended policy, actual policy and police-in-use (Ball and Bowe, 1992). Additionally, policies addressing other social conditions, for example, family or immigration policies make demands on education and may result in conflicting goals. Considering the complex interplay of policies and path dependencies of institutions which may lead to stickiness of institutions (Schweiwe and Willekens, 2009), it remains difficult to draw conclusions about the practice of teachers. What actually happens in the classroom cannot simply be ‘read off’ from policy objectives (Hill, 2009). Lipsky’s (1980, 2010) conceptualisation of teachers (and other professionals) as street-level bureaucrats highlights the importance of discretion and how it influences client outcomes. Far from just implementing policies, the top down perspective, teachers make policy in the classroom (Lipsky 1980, 2010) and actualize it (Maynard-Moody and Musheno, 2004).  A comparative examination of these processes in the classroom against the backdrop of policy development provide insights to questions that have been raised but not answered) by large-scale international studies on students outcomes (Klieme et al. 2010; Alexander 2008, 2010). The choice of countries, England, Denmark and Germany reflects classification systems of welfare states – liberal, social democratic and conservative-corporatist (Esping-Andersen, 1990) and the European systems of a generic model of OECD educational systems – Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and Northern (Bulle, 2011). 

Alexander, R. (2000) Culture and Pedagogy: International Comparisons in Primary Edcuation, Oxford: Blackwell. Alexander, R. (2008) Essays on Pedagogy, London and New York: Routledge. Alexander, R. (2010) 'The perils of policy: success, amnesia and collateral damage in systemic educational reform' Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Program 2010. Ball, S. J. and Bowe, R. (1992) 'Subject departments and the 'implementation' of National Curriculum policy: an overview of the issue', Journal of Curriculum Studies, 24: 2: 97-115. Bernstein, B. (1990) The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse, London: Routledge. Bernstein, B. (1996) Peagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, research, critique, London and New York: Talor & Francis. Bulle, N. (2011) 'Comparing OECD educational models through the prism of PISA', Comparative Education, 47: 4: 503-521. Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity. Hill, M. (2009) The Public Policy Process (5th ed.), Harlow: Pearson Education. Kelly, P., Dorf, H., Pratt, N. and Hohmann, U. (forthcoming) 'Comparing teacher roles in Denmark and England', Oxford Review of Education. Kelly, P., Hohmann, U., Pratt, N. and Dorf, H. (forthcoming) 'Teachers as mediators: an exploration of situated English teaching', British Educational Research Journal. Lipsky, M. (1980) Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services, New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Lipsky, M. (2010) Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services: 30th anniversary expanded edition, New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Maynard-Moody, S. and Musheno, M. (2003) Cops, Teachers, Counselors: Stories from the front lines of public services, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Osborn, M. J. (2004) 'New methodologies for comparative research? Establishing 'constants' and 'contexts' in educational experience', Oxford Review of Education, 30: 2: 265-285.