Education Policymaking Process Research Articles

“All Students Matter”: The Place of Race in Discourse on Student Debt in a Federal Higher Education Policymaking Process

“All Students Matter”: The Place of Race in Discourse on Student Debt in a Federal Higher Education Policymaking Process

Practicalities and dichotomies of education policy and practice of higher education in the Golden Triangle Area (Southeast Asia): Implications for international development

Following the paradigm of globalization and development as a means of achieving a better life from the domestic sphere to the international landscape, different stakeholders including scholars, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and institutions have been focusing on better informed policy and practice with an embedded mission of international development. Educational policymaking and implementation processes of a nation-state are constrained by global economic and political environments. The ongoing status of educational efforts in each country and disputing factors to the implementation of the education policies were examined. In this study, systematic literature review was conducted on the research of higher education policy in line with globalization and internationalization to depict the practicalities and dichotomies in implementing the sectors at the Golden Triangle Area (Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand). The internationalization of higher education in Golden Triangle Area needs promoting its strategic advantage in offering business opportunities through government policies to further promoting as an affordable study destination and attracting international students from ASEAN countries. The factors affecting the higher education quality and capacity of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand include the need for better quality, barriers to research capacity development, the policy process of quality assurance, and the initiatives for internationalization in all three countries.

Understanding the Education Policymaking Process in the United States

Considering the broad implications of education policy, it is important to understand the various facets of the education policymaking process. There are different stages of the process (i.e., issue definition, policy adoption, implementation, and evaluation) which, at times, can be difficult to comprehend when considering the competing goals of education and multiple stakeholders. Understanding the process can also be difficult due to the historical and contemporary influences of power and racism at play within and outside of society’s educational landscape—especially within the United States context. The process is highlighted as an iterative one which provides room for adjustments and changes across different contexts. By navigating the complex landscape of education policymaking, one can be better equipped to understand the intricacies of policymaking and its transformative capacity.

Deliberation and decisionism in educational policymaking: How Nepali educational policymakers negotiate with foreign aid agencies

ABSTRACT In the countries that receive aid from donor agencies, the educational policymaking process is not straightforward because the power and interest of donors contradict with national contexts. This qualitative study aims to investigate how educational policy decisions in Nepal, a country that receives foreign aid for its educational projects, are made. Drawing on the Habermasian conceptualisation of deliberative democracy, I theorise that educational policy decisions are made either through deliberation or decisionism. An analysis of interviews conducted with educational policymakers of Nepal found that policymaking in Nepal follows decisionism in which the representatives of foreign aid agencies are more dominant than national bureaucrats. Even though Nepali bureaucrats and political leaders are involved in the decision-making process, rational interactions do not happen because they want to fulfil their personal interests by endorsing the decisions determined by the donors. This study concludes that because of decisionism, neocolonialism, and dysfunctional policy sphere, teachers, students, parents, and community people are excluded in the decision-making process. The findings are significant not only for understanding the lack of deliberation in the policymaking process but also for improving the educational praxis of aid-recipient countries like Nepal.

Education Policy Transfer and Policy Change: Examining the Case of the National Assessment and Examination Center of Georgia

Policy change is an integral part of the modern education policymaking process. Policy changes can be done with different tools, one of which lies in policy transfer. The cons and pros of the education policy change and transfer can be seen comprehensively in post-socialist states, as the education system changed fundamentally in line with transferring policies and its aims, content, and instruments. The article deals with the process of education policy transfer and change based on the National Assessment and Examination Center (NAEC) case of Georgia. Based on the orthodox framework proposed, elaborated with the policy change concept, the article tries to determine the links between policy change and policy transfer and to identify facilitating and hindering factors of education policy change in the case of NAEC. Results show that all hindering factors are more or less linked to Soviet Inertia and post-soviet heritage: societal fears and pressure and the supra-centralization way of policymaking slow down the path of education policy transfer. However, if political, financial, and organizational support, both from outside and inside the country, coincides, it is more likely that education policy transfer and change to be successful. The article's findings can benefit the education policy theory in terms of developing and criticising the proposed assumptions, focusing on either post-soviet education transformation or policy administration.

Education during the pandemic: the case of Kuwait

PurposeThis paper analyses the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education's (MOE’s) response during the pandemic by exploring the situation of public schooling in Kuwait and the reasons behind the failure of the MOE to provide education during the global COVID-19 crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis study explores the policymaking process and the policy decisions by analysing how the MOE managed education during the crisis, by analysing the MOE's press announcements.FindingsThis article identifies opportunities the MOE missed over the past 18 years to implement online learning, and how by pausing all learning during this pandemic these resulted in the challenges the MOE is facing today. The main reasons behind this failure are not related to financial resources, but attributable to the professional capacity of the MOE's leaders to handle the education sector during this crisis. This included hesitation about making decisions and the lack of readiness of the school infrastructure. The paper concludes by offering recommendations that could inform future policy planning.Originality/valueThis paper offers insights into the educational policymaking process in Kuwait, especially during times of crisis.

Language mindsets, perceived instrumentality, engagement and graded performance in English as a foreign language students

This study aimed to examine the relationships between English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ language mindsets (i.e. entity and incremental beliefs about general language intelligence, second language aptitude, and age sensitivity in language learning) and graded performance by considering the mediating roles of their perceived instrumentality as well as four aspects of engagement (i.e. agentic engagement, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement) within English classes. A total of 526 EFL students voluntarily participated in the present study. A latent factor correlation analysis, a series of multiple regression analyses, and a structural equation modeling analysis were conducted to analyse the data. The results showed that EFL students’ language mindsets, four aspects of engagement, perceived instrumentality, and graded performance were significantly and selectively related to each other. The results also demonstrated that the relationship between incremental beliefs about second language aptitude and graded performance was fully mediated by perceived instrumentality, that the relationship between incremental beliefs about general language intelligence and graded performance was fully mediated by agentic engagement, and that the relationship between perceived instrumentality and graded performance was partially mediated by agentic engagement. Theoretical and practical implications for EFL learning, teaching, and educational policymaking processes are also discussed in the study.

Mexican education reform: elucidating dissenting teachers’ resistance

ABSTRACT Educational researchers need to pay more attention to understanding the perspectives of implementers as a means to preventing future implementation failures. In an attempt to elucidate the reasons for resistance to the implementation of the 2013 education reform in Mexico, qualitative methods were used to explore the lived experiences of dissenting teachers of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) over the cycle of policy in depth. This qualitative study analyzed the narratives of participants. The results revealed manifestations of power in four main categories: (1) agenda-setting imposition; (2) a policy formulation process led by social, economic, and political elites; (3) scientific legitimization; and (4) resistance to the implementation. Results showed that participants’ resistance was primarily triggered by feeling that teachers’ interests were excluded in the policymaking process. Therefore, in the future, democratization of the education policy-making process is a must within the Mexican context.

The Political Behavior of the Public Officials in the Education Policy-making Process in South Korea

The Political Behavior of the Public Officials in the Education Policy-making Process in South Korea

Bright future, five steps ahead making ideas work for New Zealand: A commentary

In August 1999, the National government released Bright Future, Five Steps Ahead. This policy document represents, among other things, a last minute attempt (prior to a general election) to persuade tertiary students to choose particular courses and careers in preference to others. Bright Future is, therefore, aimed at correcting some perceived anomalies in students' course preferences in the highly competitive tertiary education sector favoured by the present government. Less obvious from the political rhetoric surrounding Bright Future is the likelihood that the policy recommendations in the document represent yet another effort to enhance New Zealand's lacklustre domestic and global economic performance. The same can be said of Education for the 21st Century and the Green and White Papers on tertiary education reform, the antecedents to Bright Future. Each of these documents was founded on a variety of unsubstantiated assertions about alleged deficiencies in the tertiary sector. In light of these factors, it is hoped that the New Zealand public will seriously question both the assumptions underpinning Bright Future and the education policymaking process itself

Reframing Teach For America: A conceptual framework for the next generation of scholarship

In this article, we advance a conceptual framework for the study of Teach For America (TFA) as a political and social movement with implicit and explicit ideological and political underpinnings. We argue that the second branch of TFA’s mission statement, which maintains that TFA’s greatest point of influence in public education is not in classrooms, but in its facilitation of entry into leadership positions aimed at reshaping public schooling, can be better understood in terms of the organization’s: a) infusion of “policy entrepreneurs” into educational policymaking processes; b) cultivation of powerful networks of elite interests; c) promotion of “corporate” models of managerial leadership; and, d) racial and social class identities of its corps members that facilitate entry into leadership and policy networks. Our framework is informed by the extant research literature on TFA, interview data from more than 150 alumni and corps members, and our observations of TFA’s 20th Anniversary Summit in Washington, D.C., as an illustrative case of TFA’s messaging and general orientation toward educational reform. We conclude that this framework can help illuminate under-examined political and ideological motivations behind the organization’s activities.

Reauthorization Ready: How NASFAA Influences the Higher Education Policymaking Process

The Higher Education Act (HEA) is due to be reauthorized by Congress and the higher education policy community is working hard to be a part of those efforts. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) plays a unique role in this process, as the HEA contains the legislation behind all of the federal student financial aid programs. As partisan politics infiltrate Washington D.C., NASFAA is working with its members and association colleagues to put forth innovative recommendations to shape and inform the reauthorization process. This paper examines the reauthorization process; highlights NASFAA’s specific work, including policy recommendations; and explains how NASFAA utilizes its members and operates within the broader Washington D.C. higher education policy community to influence policy.

State Leadership for School Improvement: An Analysis of Three States

Purpose: Extant reports on states'policy differences are mostly descriptive and largely ignore the pervasive role of political culture on their educational policy-making processes. This article examines the effect of policy culture on states' policy-making mechanisms. There is evidence that a state's political culture is a significant mediating influence on its educational policy making and leadership practices at the state, district, and local level. Data Collection and Analysis: We conducted an empirical, comparative case study of educational leadership and policy-making mechanisms in three states—Indiana, Nebraska, and Oregon. Those three states, chosen because of their similarities in size but differences in educational policy histories, were part of a larger leadership study of nine states. Within each state, researchers interviewed between 8 and 11 educational policymakers who represented a diverse array of positions and organizations. The interviews were 1 hr in length, conducted in a semistructured format, and revolved around their states' accountability and school leadership policies, key educational stakeholders, and levels of collaboration among those stakeholders. Findings: Each state in the study had very different means through which they pursued educational policies. Indiana had centralized decision-making structures that sought to promote leadership and accountability through policies that revolved around equity and efficiency. Oregon had a high level of participation and collaboration at all levels in the state's mostly decentralized but very open educational policy-making process that emphasized quality. Nebraska's policy culture, which was more independent and decentralized than Oregon's, was highly collaborative but had comparatively low levels of support for state-supported leadership and accountability initiatives. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that political culture is a mediating factor for states' responses to increasing demands for leadership and accountability initiatives; it is therefore necessary to account for the impact of each state's unique political culture when planning for and explaining results of these initiatives.

Networks of Production and Dissemination of Information on Education in Latin America and the Caribbean: Their Usefulness for Decision Makers

This article presents the results of a study that explored the formal and informal information networks operating in Latin America and the Caribbean, and estimated their utility for educational policymaking processes. To achieve this goal the following procedures were undertaken: first, a search for information networks in the region was conducted; second, an analysis matrix for information networks intended to reveal their main characteristics (origin, members, information resources provided, types of information offered and topics for which information is provided, among others) was made; and third, interviews to key informants about the utility of these networks to design educational policies in the region were conducted. The main conclusions of the study were: a) most of the information related to educational policy that circulates through information networks in Latin America and the Caribbean is not useful for policymaking processes; b) the networks that offer analytic abstracts of research and policy experiences, and propose policy solutions for policy problems in a non-technical language increase the possibility of information use by policymakers; c) informal networks, where consultants, advisors, or colleagues communicate orally to policymakers relevant information about the characteristics of successful policy initiatives in specific contexts, seem to have more impact than formal networks on policy development; and d) the utility of information networks for educational policy decisions is related to their ability to communicate, in a clear and straightforward way, the main results of policy researches and experiences.

Uneasy relationships?

Multicultural societies such as the UK typically claim to embrace a model of `participative', `inclusive' and `democratic' citizenship. In this article, I examine conceptions of participative citizenship, democracy and diversity and how they inter-relate in the citizenship education policymaking process in England. I illustrate that the dominant model of citizenship is `participatory', linked to the concept of democracy. However, `diversity' is not explicitly addressed within the participatory conception, nor in relation to democracy. I discuss some of the theoretical tensions between participation, democracy and diversity. Drawing on Young's (2000) concept of `deliberative democracy', I highlight two themes — the public—private sphere distinction, and `shared values' which are particularly pertinent in considering citizenship in ethnically and religiously diverse contexts. I conclude by proposing that citizenship education should focus on the process of inclusive communication and collective problem-solving, rather than a privileging of a substantive `common good' or `shared values'.

Uncovering Information's Role in the State Higher Education Policy-Making Process

This study used testimony, documents, and interviews to examine the use of information in higher education policy making. The article discusses the coalition alignment regarding the state's tuition assistance program and the concomitant information sources on which each coalition drew in the budget process. The results show that there were differences in information sources between and within coalitions, and information was used for different purposes. The article demonstrates the potential utility of Paul A. Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework and elicits information-related suggestions for its future applicability to higher education policy analysis.

Constructing Citizenship in the Citizenship Education Policymaking Process in England: An Act of Citizenship?

Constructing Citizenship in the Citizenship Education Policymaking Process in England: An Act of Citizenship?

From conflicting interests to collective consent in advanced vocational education: policymaking and the role of stakeholders in Sweden

This study considers the policymaking process of forming a new tertiary vocational education and training (VET) policy in Sweden during the 1990s, and the influence that external stakeholders played in that process. Since the late 1960s onwards, the VET system in Sweden has been mainly integrated with general and school‐based education. Due to the changes in working life VET has recently undergone a transformation process moving towards a more demand‐led mode of functioning. Following perhaps the most significant education policymaking process on the reform of advanced vocational education, the study by analysing requirements and policy recommendations made by the six largest employer, employee and public education bodies from 1995 to 2000, suggests that private industry and commerce managed to establish their requirements, while the employee stakeholders made the largest concessions from an ideological standpoint.

Max Weber and the Complexity of Parliamentary Democracy: Applying Formal and Substantive Rationality to the English and Welsh Education Policy-making Process

This article illustrates the importance of Max Weber's attitude to both bureaucratic and political func tions. Formal and substantive rational concepts are applied to distinguish the actions of education civil servants and politicians in relation to education policy-making. Evidence is taken from English and Welsh Educational and Public Administration Parliamentary Select Committees of the 1970s and the present day. We gain from Weber's ideas a relevant framework to critique the relationship and signifi cantly the historical and contemporary roles of education civil servants and politicians. The article demonstrates that a change has occurred with more substantive inputs visible within both the education relationship and general policy making processes. The article further argues that Parliamen tary Select Committees are crucial in questioning both for mal and substantive influences within parliamentary democ racy.

Correlates of Educational Policy Priorities in Developing Nations

THIS RESEARCH has two primary objectives: first, the identification of socio-economic factors and political system variables associated with variation in educational policy outputs among developing nations. Second, there is an effort to determine which of these input factors has more significant influence on two educational policy dimensions: distributive spending (division of educational funds between mass educational expansion and preparation of elite manpower for economic growth) and non-distributive spending (per capita levels of educational expenditure).1 The policy indicator central to this study, the allocation of educational benefits between elite and mass segments of the population, is conceptualized as a distributive output because it assesses within system division of funds for one group (the haves) relative to another group (the have-nots).2 Although the major focus here is on the distributive measure, non-distributive output is considered in order to compare the impacts of socio-economic and political factors on two policy dimensions. The systems framework of policy analysis functions as the organizational schema for this investigation. While this orientation is popular in the analysis of state and urban policy outputs, it has rarely been used in the cross-national context.3 Consequently, findings here make a contribution where there is a gap in existing literature and permit some tentative conclusions regarding the importance of particular correlates in developing countries. These results can be juxtaposed against policy analysis findings from the American states in order to determine whether policy antecedents for developing nations are similar to those for states in a developed nation. Thus, there are two foci for comparing the influence of socioeconomic and political parameters in the educational policy-making process: (1) by