Inquiring into educational policies: a special issue on the contribution of Stephen Ball

Abstract

The reforms that followed the socio-economic crisis which unfolded in 2008 should not be considered as completely new, but rather as the acceleration of a longer trend in educational change. However, the scale of the transformations leads us to question whether the crisis might represent a turning point leading either to the intensification of market reforms or to their weakening as part of a wider reassessment of the links and tensions between inequalities, economic performance and taxation. Stephen Ball is one of the key scholars who have explored the origins of these educational transformations and examined their implications for pupils, students, the educational workforce and the wider society. His policy cycle approach led him to develop research in key interconnected areas of education policy which are more than ever relevant to the understanding of the current context. These include the relationships between the intersected inequalities (in terms of social class, gender and ?race?) in societies and access and participation in education; the policies related to choice, marketisation and privatisation; the channelling of power through performativity and the development of (increasingly global) networks. This special issue of the London Review of Education gathers six papers reflecting on the contribution of Stephen Ball to educational research, policy and practice. There are many ways of looking at this and the specific approach chosen here is to look at how his ideas travel (in the broadest sense) and to explore the ways in which they are used and recontextualised.