Framing literacy policy: power and policy drivers in primary schools

Abstract

AbstractThis article is linked to the theme of the special issue through its focus on micropolitical analysis of the changing role of ‘policy drivers’, mediating national policy through interactions with primary school heads and teachers. The central arguments draw on case studies undertaken in two primary schools where changes related to literacy teaching were being enacted at a particular historical moment (in 2008–2009). Conceptual tools are drawn from the work of Goffman on frame analysis to examine how an increasingly diverse range of drivers, representing new forms of marketisation (Local Authority (LA) consultants; a regional director responsible for the travel of literacy policy; one ‘bought in’ from a private company) interacted with practitioners. Differences in the framing of policy between heads, teachers and policy drivers are identified and analysed as significant features of new kinds of ‘assemblages’ in public policy. Insights from the analysis are drawn on to propose a research agenda for policy research in the literacy field in a shifting political era in England (and the rest of the United Kingdom). This agenda incorporates critical perspectives, giving voice to practitioners, and building on international work, as well as work on policy drivers in other educational areas, and from other disciplines.