Date post: | 31-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | gordon-mason |
View: | 219 times |
Download: | 0 times |
Policy Studies in Education:Definition of the Field
TSANG Wing-kwong
Ho Tim Building, Rm 416Ext. 6922
[email protected]/~wktsang
EDD5213
Policy: In Search of Definition
Thomas Dye’s Definition:
“Public Policy is concerned with what governments do, why they do it, and what difference it makes. It is about political (/social) science(s) and the ability of this discipline to describe, analyze, and explain public policy. Public policy is whatever government choose to do or not to do.”
Stuart S. Negal’s Definition “Public Policy analysis can be defined as
determining which of various alternative public or governmental policy will most achieve a given set of goals in light of the relations between the policies and the goals.
Policy: In Search of Definition
“That definition brings out four key elements of policy evaluation which are:
Goals, including normative constraints and relative weights for the goals.
Policies, programs, projects, decisions, options, means, or other alternatives that are available for achieving the goals.
Relations between the policies and the goals, including relations that are established by intuition, authority, statistics, observation, deduction, guesses, or other means
Draw a conclusion as to which policy or combination of policies is best to adopt in light of the goals, policies, and relations.
Stuart S. Negal’s Definition (cont’d)
Policy: In Search of Definition
The Interactionist Definition “The conscious attempt of officials, legislators,
and interested publics to find constructive responses to the needs and pathologies which they observe in their surrounding culture.”
(The National Academy of Education)
Policy: In Search of Definition
Aron Wildovsky’s Definition “Policy is a process as well as a product. It is used
to refer to a process of decision-making and also the product of that process.” (1979)
Policy: In Search of Definition
Frank Fischer’s Definition “Public policy is a discursive construct rather than a
self-defining phenomenon.” (Fischer, 2003, p. 69) ” “We define policy as a political agreement on a course
of action (or inaction) designed to resolve or mitigate problems on the political agenda. This agreement…is an intellectual constructs rather than a self-defining phenomenon. Discursively constructed, there can be no inherently unique decision, institutions, or actors constituting public policy that are to be identified, uncovered, and explained. Public policy, as such, is an analytical category with a substantive content cannot be simply researched; more fundamentally, it has to be interpreted.” (p.60)
Policy: In Search of Definition
Stephen J. Ball’s Definition “Policy is clearly a matter of the ‘authoritative
allocation of values’; policies are the operational statements of values, ‘statements of prescriptive intent’ (Kogan 1975 p.55). But values do not float free of their social context. We need to ask whose values are validated in policy, and whose are not. Thus, ‘The authoritative allocation of values draws our attention to the centrality of power and control in the concept of policy’ (Prunty 1985 p.135). Policies project images of an ideal society (education policies project definitions of what counts as education).”
Constituents of Public Policy
Decision MakersActors
Administrative Officials Program administrators Front-line service deliverers Recipients Stakeholders End users
Policy GoalPolicy Means and MeasuresPolicy Causality and Conclusion
Constituents of Public Policy
Policy Implementation Stick: Regulations Carrot: Economic policy instruments Sermon: Information, education and persuasion
Policy Outcomes, Consequences, and Evaluation
The Prevailed Values Policy as text Policy as signifiers Policy as ideological apparatus
Policy Study: Definition of the Field
Study of the Policy Study for the Policy
Policy Study: Definition of the Field
Study of the Policy Study of the policy content Study of the policy process Study of the policy outcome Study of the authoritatively allocated values Study of the policy discourse
Policy Study: Definition of the Field
Study for the Policy Study for policy making
Causal analysisFeasibility studyCost-effectiveness analysisCost-benefit analysisCost-utility analysis
Study for policy advocacy Study for policy criticism
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Analytical-technical perspective in policy studies in education Epistemological assumptions
Empirically, realities under study are observable, recordable, measurable and calculable
Analytically, the phenomena under study are dividable into causally connected parts, which in turn form a comprehensive whole
Methodologically, propositions under investigation are verifiable or even repeatable similar to laboratorial experiments in natural sciences
Results and conclusions drawn from studies are universally applicable to great varieties of situations
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Analytical-technical perspective in policy studies in education (cont’d)
Practical assumptions Policy makings are technical and rational choices of the
best solutions to the well identified and defined problems
Technical procedures of intervention can therefore be specified and even standardized
Policy means and measures used to intervene can manipulated and engineered
The policy environments to be engineered will respond and react according to engineering designs
Designed policy effects are recordable and calculable neutrally and objectively as stock taking and auditing
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Analytical-technical perspective in policy studies in education (cont’d)
Hence, policy studies and practices are comprehended as scientific and engineering projects
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Interpretative-political perspective in policy studies in education Epistemological assumptions
Realities under study are socially and culturally constructed realities rather than objectively and naturally preexisting realities
Phenomena under study are embedded with socially and culturally attributed or even imputed meanings and values
Methodologically, policy studies are to understand the meanings and valued embedded in policy environments and phenomena
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Interpretative-political perspective in policy studies in education (cont’d)
Practical assumptions Policy makings are political deliberations, negotiation,
checks and balances and building consensuses of different or even contradictory interpretations of policy realities and phenomena
Policy implementations are processes of (second round) negotiation, persuasions, and team-building in which policy mandates are specified and localized into social, political and cultural environments which policy measures are supposed to take holds and materialized
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Interpretative-political perspective in policy studies in education Practical assumptions (cont’d)
Responses and reactions of policy environments are not automatic but are open to negotiations, resistances or even deliberately alterations
Policy evaluations are yet another round of interpretations and negotiations on the effectiveness, benefits, and pitfalls of the policy measures concerned
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Interpretative-political perspective in policy studies in education (cont’d)
Hence, policy studies and practices are political projects of negotiations, checks and balances, compromises and trade-offs
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Discursive-critical perspective in policy studies in education Epistemological assumptions
Realities under study are socially and culturally constructed realities hypostatized, frozen and probably distorted by given historical, social and political institutions
Phenomena under study are assumed to be power-hypostatized and institution-biased in favor and/or against different groupings in given historical and social contexts
Methodologically, policy studies are to reveal and critique the systemic distortions and biases hypostatized and legitimatized in given policy phenomena
Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
Discursive-critical perspective in policy studies in education Practical assumptions
Policy makings are processes of finding and constituting resolutions to rectify the systemic distortions and biases embedded in given policy realities
Policy implementations are coercive processes of redistributions of resources and powers in favor of the “suppressed” groups and against the “suppressing groups” existing in particular policy phenomena
Hence, policy studies and practices are critical projects of critiques and rectifications of systemic distortions and biases in given policy realities
Topic 2Policy Studies in Education:
Definition of the Field
End