This article discusses what we know about the underlying social and political conditions shaping research evidence use in education and how this applies to Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs). It discusses types of use, political dynamics and processes, brokers and intermediaries, and racial dynamics and lenses. It also recommends strategies for…

This article contributes to a growing literature on policy mobilities by proposing that affect be considered in analyses of the movements and transformations of policy over time and space. In particular, collective affective conditions, the role of affect in terms of infrastructures and actors of policy apparatuses and the mediating influences of…

In this article we proffer a theoretical model for analyzing power in language policy processes and incorporate ethnographic data to illustrate the usefulness of the model. Grounded in an ethnographic project in the US state of Washington, we examine how nominally identical school district-level programs, which are funded under the same…

This article analyses the institutional power of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the process of education policy formation in El Salvador during 2003-2005. The results show how bi- and multi-lateral institutions are able to leverage financial and intellectual capital to guide the policymaking process and sway…

This paper examines the tensions that sometimes arise between educational researchers and policy makers. The recent history of the relationship is described and it is suggested that part of the reason for current disenchantment (on both sides) is that the two groups approach research with different expectations and priorities. Two particular…

Because policymakers have a direct impact on schools, teachers, and therefore students, this study examined the discourse of policymakers in relation to their views on "quality" teaching. Findings from the study conclude the cultural models and discourses widely varied among policymakers. Their views were based on an idiosyncratic…

The relative newness of educational politics as a research field means that, aside from possibly systems analysis, much theory-building has yet to be done. In this regard, power analysis has both limitations and potentialities. Some people contend that power is evident only in those situations involving government agencies utilizing negative…

A Jesuit high school is examined in an attempt to discover the nature of the Jesuit educational policy-making process. (Author/ND)

A conflict-cooperation-conflict model is offered of the genesis, functioning, and aftermath of an inter-governmental and inter-professional program in a major city. Outputs prior to this linkage are perceived as generating major conflicts which eventually were settled by decisions to parcel out certain school building responsibilities among city…

The School Organization program of the Center for Social Organization of Schools is currently concerned with authority-control structures, task structures, reward systems, and peer group processes in schools. This report, prepared by the School Organization program, examines one aspect of authority-control structures in high schools--content of…

A study of leading state-level policy actors in Florida's higher education identified a hierarchy of power and influence. Policy elites were legislators and key legislative staff consultants, the university system chancellor, and the state board of regents. Least influential in policy formation were faculty and student interest groups and…

An important question about school financing is the possible financial consequences of school systems varying along a continuum from more to less political. This variation is "political relatedness," which is measured here with already available data from published sources. The impact of this political relatedness compared with other classes of…

A critical analysis and interpretation of "The Sorting Machine" by Joel H. Spring is presented. The book, which uses a historical revisionist approach to trace the development and impact of the corporate-government-foundation network on the ideological orientation of the American educational system, makes its greatest contribution by…

One of twelve case studies growing out of the Educational Governance Project, this report contains a description and an analysis of the process through which Minnesota State government establishes policy for its public elementary and secondary schools. This process is affected by many factors, such as the availability of fiscal and human…

Describes the higher education reform discussion in Austria which led to major system reorganization in 1993. It is noted that a previous academic oligarchy played a central role because a high proportion of university faculty also served in the parliament. Research on higher education played little part in reform because few studies were…