Commitments to inclusive education have been articulated in policy across the UK, in the context of increasingly inclusive rhetoric in education policy globally over recent years. This paper uses a critical policy analysis approach to understand the framing of inclusion within national legislation, policy documents and associated key resources…

Research on higher education policy in the United States often seeks to understand commonalities across state contexts to understand broader concepts influencing decision-making. However, this minimises the importance of abstract and distinct factors impacting policy processes within a state. While researchers in other fields attribute these…

Studies have shown how school professionals deal with large quantities of student test data and accountability policies in different ways. However, the subtle ways in which school leaders and teachers use their time, their power and their talk when dealing with external policy demands in daily practice is understudied. Using data from interviews…

In this critical, political discourse analysis, we trace how two concepts, equity and quality, became discursively linked and contested in the administration of postsecondary education policy over time (1968-1994) -- a developmental process we refer to as (e)quality politics. By engaging in a historical analysis, we investigate (a) the racialized…

Education policies are typically anchored in official texts that provide a foundation for their enactment in schools. What are the implications of an "invisible" policy not anchored in any official text due to political motives? This study explores the enactment of an invisible education policy that regulates religious enclave schools.…

School reform is almost always born out of big dreams and well-meaning desires to change the status quo. But between lofty reform legislation and the students whose education is at stake, there are numerous additional policies and policymakers who determine how reforms operate. Even in the best cases, school reform initiatives can perpetuate…

Education policy has long been analyzed as a cycle where various actors influence different stages. However, few such studies have focused on identifying and interrogating the specific moments that shape an education policy's overall equity trajectory. This article uses Bowe, Ball, and Gold's policy cycle as an exploratory theoretical framework,…

This paper examines school management and policies in Germany and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, which is comparative and qualitative, explores the interrelationship between different levels of governance and the responses of teacher unions. The inquiry is informed by the perspectives of historical institutionalism and path…

Discussions about the role of universities have long been framed in terms of questions of what is good for the public, as well as how and whether higher education serves that good. Today, the language of 'societal impact' has become an accepted way for policymakers to frame the matter, but just who is included in the underlying definition of…

Drawing on longitudinal data of state K--12 education policymaker demographics, we examine education policymaking body diversity over time, and across states and institutional structures. Though dominated by white businessmen, females and professional educators increased their presence at the education policymaking table. There was little movement…

A long history of scholarship on teacher professionalism documents how different narratives about teaching animate education policy and practice. We bridge the Advocacy Coalition Framework with institutional logics to examine how beliefs about teaching unite and divide a state-level coalition pursuing teacher licensure policy reform and manifest…

This research sought to understand how organizations have adapted to the evolving policy ecosystem to scale and sustain a justice-orientated approach to education reform. Using descriptive social network analysis to map the policy information network that formed around Community Schools, the authors identified the influential organizations in the…

Inclusive educational reforms have important policy shift implications. This paper examines an educational policy reform from Chile, which focuses on transforming grade retention practices. Before this policy, grade retention in Chile was a common practice, largely unchanged over decades. Effective in 2020, the reform marked a significant shift…

On September 22, 2020, Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13950, titled "Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping." While the order has been revoked, as of May, 2022, 34 states, including Iowa (HF 802), had passed or were considering legislation prohibiting the use of critical lenses, such as Critical Race Theory, in public K-12 schools. In…

International organisations' importance in education policy has been growing in recent years. They have been able to promote their role by providing data and interpreting it through international assessments and guidance, and by highlighting some countries or regions as benchmarks for global improvement, performance, and efficiency. International…