Tracing Education Policy and Politics in Action: Power Relations and Forces at Play in the Implementation of Teaching Scotland’s Future

Author(s):

Miss Anna D Beck(submitting)Professor James C Conroy(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 07 D, Teacher Professionalism

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

17:15-18:45

Room:

GCONF - Conference Hall

Chair:

Anna Tsatsaroni

Contribution

In recent years, teacher education reform has become a key focus across the UK, Europe and many developed countries across the world (Darling-Hammond & Leiberman, 2012). Despite differing national contexts and traditions, these reforms share the underlying assumption that teacher quality is central to student outcomes (Wang, Odell, Klecka, Spalding & Lin, 2010). This perception has been heightened by the influential OECD (2005) report, ‘Teachers Matter’.

This international policy concern has had a very particular Scottish refraction: Teaching Scotland’s Future (TSF), perhaps more widely known as the Donaldson Report (Donaldson, 2011). TSF contains fifty recommendations for the improvement of teacher education in its entirety. Markedly different from previous policy texts, TSF heralds a radical move by the Scottish Government, in line with international developments, to reform and modernise teacher education. Following the government’s acceptance of all fifty recommendations, which was an unusual move given the propensity of governments to ‘cherry pick’ elements of a review that fit with their policy objectives, a National Partnership Group (NPG) was created and tasked with translating the recommendations into policy. A subsequent partnership group, the National Implementation Board (NIB) has since been assembled to finalise the finer details of implementation, and to tackle some of the more sensitive and complex recommendations.

The members of the NPG and the NIB can be considered as powerful actors in the sphere of Scottish education, representing universities, Scottish Government, local government, and teacher unions and associations. Each of these ‘institutional actors’ arrives at the table of ‘common interest’ with a constituency, a set of expectations and a set of normative attachments. Such complex and rhizomatic entailments are apt to produce nodes of contestation and blockage resulting in the establishment of power relations within and between groups. Drawing on our analysis of operational and political dynamics within the NPG and NIB, this paper locates such nodes of contestation and blockage as they occur in real time, and discusses their role in the silencing of a policy agenda.

Recognising the role of economic, social, historical and cultural contexts in education policy formation, this research employs a critical policy scholarship approach (Grace, 2007). We also borrow elements of Actor Network Theory (ANT; Fenwick & Edwards, 2010) in order to trace policy implementation, a moving target, as it evolves over time. Viewing ANT as a set of conceptual and methodological tools, a palette of resources, rather than a theory of what to think, it is used to illuminate complex dynamics, conceptualise institutional and individual power relations, identify actors, networks and forces, and trace the flow of power between them.

Drawing on the analysis of a range of qualitative data, this paper aims to:

Identify key actors, networks and forces with capacity to drive or limit the agenda set out in TSF
Trace the interaction and power relations between key actors and highlight the way in which policy is shaped by these in real time
Map the process by which the policy agenda set out in TSF is becoming silenced

Method

This paper draws on data gathered from thirty semi-structured interviews with key policy actors. Our sample of participants includes: members of the NPG, members of the NIB and additional individuals central to the current education reform. Interviewing policy actors while they are ‘in action’ has provided us with invaluable ‘real time’ snapshots of actors’ perceptions and experiences of a policy process in which they are immersed. Eight participants from the initial phase of data collection were then re-interviewed, all of whom were members of the NPG, once their involvement in the implementation of TSF had ceased. Document analysis was employed for the analysis of policy texts, parliamentary reports, press releases and public responses from key organisations and associations in relation to Teaching Scotland’s Future. Qualitative data was primarily analysed using an adapted version of Gerald Grace’s (2002) content analysis. A range of conceptual and methodological tools were borrowed from ANT in order to further analyse the data. This allowed us to map the policy agenda as it evolved over time and to trace the unfolding of power relations in real time, as the report and recommendations were being discussed and contested, and their implementation planned and put into action.

Expected Outcomes

Unusually, if not uniquely, in this field, our research has successfully traced the mediation and implementation of policy as it has occurred in real time. We have identified key actors, networks and forces which have played a central role in the silencing of the agenda set out in TSF. Tracing the movements of these policy actors and networks in action has not been without its challenges; however, it has allowed opportunities for the isolation of moments of translation, contestation, agreement and action between them, during the formation, or dis-formation, of policy. This research contributes in an innovative and original way to the understanding of political processes involved in implementing policy, through providing insight into areas of political struggle, power relations and forces which act to drive or limit change. We have located nodes of blockage and contestation in the implementation process, thereby illuminating the complex process by which a policy agenda becomes somewhat silenced. Such information can offer a resource to policy makers who wish to implement and sustain change, and will hold considerable significance not only for future education reforms within the UK, but current and future education reform internationally.

References

Darling-Hammond, L. (2012). Teacher Preparation and Development in the United States: A changing policy landscape. In L. Darling-Hammong & A Lieberman (Eds.) Teacher Education around the Word: Changing Policies and Practices. Oxon: Routledge. Donaldson, G. (2011). Teaching Scotland's Future. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Fenwick, T., & Edwards, R. (2010). Actor-Network Theory in Education. Oxon: Routledge. Grace, G. (2002). Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Grace, G. (2007). Education and the City: Theory, history and contemporary practice. London: Routledge. OECD. (2005). Teachers Matter: Attracting Developing and Retaining Teachers. Paris: OECD. Wang, J., Odell, S. J., Klecka, C. L., Spalding, E., & Lin, E. (2010). Understanding teacher education reform. Journal of Teacher Education, 61, 395–402.

Author Information

Miss Anna D Beck (submitting)

University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Professor James C Conroy (presenting)