2.1 Using Critical Discourse Analysis to Interpret Educational Policy on School Exclusion in England and Wales

Abstract

Fairclough’s (2009) four stage framework for dialectical-relational CDA is useful in interpreting findings from educational policy research. This chapter explores blending a varied range of tools from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to provide a multifaceted interpretation of an issue in UK education policy under New Labour (1997–2006). Drawing on a study which examined the social justice implications of change in discourses around exclusion from school during a ten year period, the chapter illustrates the blending of an eclectic range of methods in the analysis of policy texts. The difficulties and advantages of integrating findings from approaches as varied as: Fairclough’s dialectical-relational CDA (implemented both through corpus analysis of keywords and collocations, and qualitative analysis), van Leeuwen’s work on the representation of social actors and Fauconnier and Turner’s blending theory, will be discussed. The chapter also explores the use of overarching concepts, such as the representations of social events and social actors, policy legitimation, and texts as ‘genres of governance’, to draw together disparate analyses into a coherent interpretation.