This study investigates policy work in educational leadership courses at universities. It analyses the types of engagement present in university teachers' policy work and in their interpretations and translations of policy intentions into teaching designs and practices. The study illustrates policy work as a phenomenon and draws on the theory of…

This paper explores the self-authoring of two early childhood educators in Vietnam's disadvantaged areas, Ha and Dong, to understand their marginalization and resilience in their daily practices. Guided by a Bakhtinian view, teachers' self-authoring is conceptualized as an ongoing process in which the teachers articulate authoritarian discourses,…

A trend towards evidence-based practice has developed in policy and practice in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia in recent years, evolving to become a powerful hegemonic force. This paper considers this latest impetus to teach according to the mandates of a narrow evidence base as a symptom of the post-truth condition, one that…

Since their introduction by the Conservative government in 2013, primary school children in England have taken a mandated grammar, punctuation and spelling assessment, which places an emphasis on decontextualised, standardised English and the identification of traditional grammatical terminology. Despite some concise criticisms from educational…

This paper focuses on the relationship between policy creation and policy enactment through the use of an innovative qualitative research methodology, photo elicitation. Teachers applying Common Core State Standards were studied in two states through indepth interviews, photographs captured by the participants, and other artifacts. Findings…

Teachers engage with policies far beyond the confines of their classroom and seemingly unrelated to their classroom practice, stretching the parameters of theories such as street-level bureaucracy (Lipsky, 2010; Weatherly & Lipsky, 1977) and doing policy in schools (Ball, Maguire, & Braun, 2012). This was observed in ethnographic studies…

This paper considers the policy "roles" adopted by teachers enacting policy in a department. It draws on a longitudinal study of two secondary mathematics departments endeavouring to make deep change aligned with a demanding curriculum policy. The study validates aspects of an existing typology, demonstrates the existence of a variety of…

STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, is widely used in science education. There is confusion, however, as to its provenance and meaning which is potentially problematic. This study examines the purpose of STEM practice in education in England and asks if there are differences in perceptions of STEM between science…

This article explores dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a preschool group in which three languages (Swedish, Romani and Arabic) are spoken on an everyday basis. The article highlights the interplay between policy decisions on the societal level, the teachers' interpretations of these policies, as well as language practices on the micro…

This paper contextualizes contemporary urban teachers' online dissent in public discussions of education reform in relation to past educational crisis narratives to interpret recent shifts in the structure of education reform dialogue in the United States. It does so by examining the form and content of compositions in which teachers respond to…

This article examines "policy" and "policy response" through documentary analysis and an illustrative study of policy implementation. Our approach is informed by Foucault's (2009) theory that power relations in society are conditioned by a culturally generated set of ideas, and that these relations contain the space for both…

Gives some examples of the discourses of change that are found among teachers as they talk about their literacy instruction and compares them with the discourses of change that are found among policy makers, drawn from published policy documents. Discusses how educators might use this information in considering school change. (SG)

In this paper the author argues for the use of Deleuzian theories in educational contexts. In particular, she is interested in the use of the concept of rhizomes, and the analysis of texts as rhizomes, drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's work in "A Thousand Plateaus" (1987). She discusses the possibilities for using rhizomatics in educational…