Policy texts are representations of practice that both reflect and shape the world around them. There is, however, little higher education research that critically analyses the impact of higher education policy on educational developers and educational development practice. Extending methods from critical discourse analysis by combining textual…

Understanding how ASD policy is made at the state level is important to the various institutional and individual stakeholders who make, apply, and are governed by it. Critical disability theory was applied to this qualitative study of ASD policymaking in New Mexico. This study examined how policymakers and stakeholders brought their identities,…

This case discusses how scenario-based interviews can be used to develop research into policy and practice. Based on data collected from U.K. further education management settings, it shows how and why scenario-based interviews were used. It also explains how the data collected were then used to illustrate and analyze the implementation of a…

This article promulgates a conceptual framework for researching various roles of educational assessment emphasised in governments' assessment policies as a basis for comparing policy-making related to national testing in primary and lower secondary education in Norway and Sweden from 2000-2017. The study analyses policy documents and expert…

In the twenty-first century, internationalisation of higher education (HE) has multiple dimensions--contents of curriculum, mobility of students and faculty, technology and programmes, which are all more or less related to English-medium instruction (EMI) policies. Like many other non-English-speaking countries, China's EMI policies are crucial…

This study employed insider research and reflective practice to investigate exchanges across the research-policy interface to understand the practice of producing policy-relevant systematic reviews. Interviewees came from 11 systematic reviews or review programmes which spanned four models of policy-relevant reviews and between them provided…

This article captures how scientific uncertainty is negotiated and its implications on public health policy. Through the case study of the Human Papillomavirus vaccine in Canada, we investigated how policymakers engage in 'sensemaking', the process whereby policymakers mediate shifting informational terrain to come to an understanding of what…

This study explored the moral complexity of student drug and alcohol policies that are often disciplinary, punitive, and exclusionary in nature. The Ethic of the Profession and its Model for Students' Best Interests (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016; Stefkovich, 2013), a professional ethical construct for educational leadership and for school…

State lottery policies have been created to generate additional funds to support public initiatives, such as higher education scholarships. Through 18 participant interviews and document analysis, this study examined how decision makers in Arkansas socially constructed citizens while forming lottery policy. The social construction of target…

Policy network approach has become a broadly accepted and frequently adopted practice in modern state governance, especially in the public sector. The study utilises a broadly defined policy network conceptual frame and categories of reference to trace the evolution of education policy-making in China. The study uses "The Outline of China's…

The research reported in this article contributes new understandings of systemic change by studying the form of system redesign known in England as "academisation." The data illuminate tensions within the neoliberal policy complex that are surfaced in a single secondary school. Although several studies have described academy conversions…

This research was conducted at Sunshine in Trinidad and Tobago and highlights the voices of seventeen street children. Although they live at Sunshine many of them continue to frequent the streets. Published research indicates that there exists a paucity of information about the lives and experiences of these children. It is important that…

This study explores mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation. Previous studies have given much attention to processes of diffusion when accounting for educational policy formation. Less account has been given to the day-to-day institutional dynamics through which educational policies develop and change. Building on extensive…

This paper builds on previous research (Ball, 2012, Ball & Junemann, 2012) to explore some aspects of the embodiment of policy. The author draws on Larner and Laurie's (2010) work on technocratic expertise and how, as she puts it, "privatisation ideas and practices are transferred in embodied forms," and in particular her argument…

In 2009, a seldom-used policy lever emerged in the form of a competitive grant program, Race to the Top (RTTT), and sparked a flurry of state-led initiatives as states vied for federal dollars. The current study examines the policymaking context that surrounded these events and propelled Tennessee to the top of the race among the states. Through…