Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education: Examining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access

Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education: Examining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access
Author: Maria Teresa Tatto
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2012-09-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9460919332

This book originated in a policy analysis class at Michigan State University taught during 2010. Using Professor Tatto’s unique approach to teaching policy analysis, the professor and students agreed to construct a class that represented a reflective and grounded experience in the policy analysis of a current and relevant issue with global ramifications; we began exploring policies that were developed at the global level and that were implemented locally. We investigated the surge of globally developed standards and regulations in an effort to improve education. Our goal was to learn cross-nationally about policies that seek to reform curriculum and instruction under efficiency and global competitiveness arguments, such as Education for All (EFA) and its USA cousin No Child Left Behind (NCLB). We knew our work would be bounded by the time available in a one-semester class, and by resource constraints. We did exploratory inquiry supported by literature reviews, reports on rigorous research studies, and in one case an exploratory case study. The policies we chose to explore, such as EFA and NCLB, offered us the opportunity to examine current reform tendencies that are intended to provide access to quality education for all children, the preparation of teachers to support diverse populations, the organization of schools to accommodate these children in response to vague policy mandates, and power issues affecting the different constituencies and stakeholders. The effects of these and other policies were difficult to track because research is scant and decisions are frequently made based on ideology or political persuasion. Our purpose was to explore the critical issues that originated such policies, and to search for documented evidence regarding policy implementation and effectiveness. We investigated the factors that seemed to interfere with successful implementation, from conceptual, theoretical, and methodological perspectives. In this class we learned that there are not ready-set frameworks for policy analysis, but rather that these have to be constructed according to the issues that emerge as policies are conceptualized and implemented to fit local contexts and needs. The book pays particular attention to the contexts of policy, including the evolving conceptualization of global and local systems of governance, knowledge regimes, and policy spaces. The book is designed for faculty and doctoral students in education who are interested in understanding diverse frameworks for policy analysis, and for those in the general public who are interested in the policies we analyze here.

Critical Approaches to Education Policy Analysis

Critical Approaches to Education Policy Analysis
Author: Michelle D. Young
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2016-11-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3319396439

This volume informs the growing number of educational policy scholars on the use of critical theoretical frameworks in their analyses. It offers insights on which theories are appropriate within the area of critical educational policy research and how theory and method interact and are applied in critical policy analyses. Highlighting how different critical theoretical frameworks are used in educational policy research to reshape and redefine the way scholars approach the field, the volume offers work by emerging and senior scholars in the field of educational policy who apply critical frameworks to their research. The chapters examine a wide range of current educational policy topics through different critical theoretical lenses, including critical race theory, critical discourse analysis, postmodernism, feminist poststructuralism, critical theories related to LGBTQ issues, and advocacy approaches.

Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning

Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning
Author: Carl Patton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2015-08-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317350006

Updated in its 3rd edition, Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning presents quickly applied methods for analyzing and resolving planning and policy issues at state, regional, and urban levels. Divided into two parts, Methods which presents quick methods in nine chapters and is organized around the steps in the policy analysis process, and Cases which presents seven policy cases, ranging in degree of complexity, the text provides readers with the resources they need for effective policy planning and analysis. Quantitative and qualitative methods are systematically combined to address policy dilemmas and urban planning problems. Readers and analysts utilizing this text gain comprehensive skills and background needed to impact public policy.

Becoming a teacher education researcher

Becoming a teacher education researcher
Author: Diane Mayer
Publisher: Critical Publishing
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2021-01-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1913453316

You can successfully develop your higher education research profile while balancing the demands of training teachers and administration. While teacher education is key to preparing qualified teachers who can educate pupils for the demands of the twenty-first century, many university-based teacher educators experience conflicting demands in their professional practice. Their lives are often so dominated by teaching and associated work that their aspirations to develop a research profile are hampered. This text explores the critical issues faced by those working in teacher education and how they have negotiated the expectations and requirements of the Academy to establish themselves as leading international teacher education researchers. Through a series of autobiographical cases, this book demonstrates a range of trajectories in different contexts which have facilitated the development of teacher educators' successful research profiles. Understandings and realities of the policy context, the professional context, the research context (including funding, metrics, type of research valued), the institutional context and various personal positionings are examined in order to illuminate stories of research success and demonstrate their relevance to all teacher educators.

Empowering Teachers for Equitable and Sustainable Education

Empowering Teachers for Equitable and Sustainable Education
Author: Maria Teresa Tatto
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2024-04-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1040019439

This groundbreaking book uses a comprehensive study of a novel Master of Education program to showcase how teachers can be engaged in authoritative equity‐based research, using comparative education theory, inquiry‐based pedagogy, and the UNESCO SDGs as powerful frameworks. By developing agency to advance culturally sustaining and humanizing practices, it demonstrates how teachers can promote equity in their classrooms and communities. The central premise of the program is that teachers must become comparative, global, and local action researchers to have agency in their practice and to become effective advocates for the cultural and learning needs of their students, especially those in disadvantaged contexts or “learning at the bottom of the pyramid.” By learning comparative framing and social science methods, reviewing the literature to select verifiable educational research, and developing and implementing a plan for action research, this book offers new ideas for how teachers can effectively respond to recent UNESCO calls to reimagine and create promising futures locally. By providing formative and summative evidence of culturally and socially transformative learning, and showcasing how teacher educators can engage teachers in authoritative justice‐inquiry‐based research, this book will appeal to scholars, faculty, and researchers of comparative education and teacher education, and development.

Learning to teach in post-apartheid South Africa

Learning to teach in post-apartheid South Africa
Author: Yusuf Sayed
Publisher: AFRICAN SUN MeDIA
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2018-11-28
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1928357962

Teacher education programmes seek to provide student teachers with the knowledge and expertise to provide qualtiy teaching and learning in a diverse and challenging school context. Learning to Teach in post-apartheid South Africa: Student Teachers' Encounters with Initial Teacher Education addresses the complexities of teacher education programmes in preparing students to teach. It adds to the knowledge about teacher education, contributing critical understanding of education and the schooling system. The book provides important insights to deepen researchers, academics, teacher education providers, policy-makers, and students' understanding of the importance to address equity, redress, and quality in South African educaiton in a post-apartheid era. This book further helps to build student teachers' capacities to work creatively and to become active and critical agents of transformation. It ultimately outlines the challenges face in designing and delivering successful Inital Teacher Education programmes, and the impact this has on delivering equitable and qualtiy education.

Educational Politics for Social Justice

Educational Politics for Social Justice
Author: Catherine Marshall
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2020-01-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807778176

Employing a social justice framework, this book provides educational leaders and practitioners with tools and strategies for grappling with the political fray of education politics. The framework offers ways to critique, challenge, and alter social, cultural, and political patterns in organizations and systems that perpetuate inequities. The authors focus on the processes through which educational politics is enacted, illustrating how inequitable power relations are embedded in our democratic systems. Readers will explore education politics at five focal points of power (micro, local/district, state, federal, and global). The text provides examples of how to “work the system” in ways that move toward greater justice and equity in schools. “This book challenges those who want to work toward justice with critical starting points, conversation starters, and strategies for collaborative leadership.” —From the Foreword by Enrique Aleman, The University of Texas at San Antonio “If educators are truly committed to their students, this text provides the analytic tools and consequent strategies to make public schools better for all of our students. Bravo!” —Catherine A. Lugg, Rutgers University

Internationalizing a School of Education

Internationalizing a School of Education
Author: John Schwille
Publisher: MSU Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2016-12-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 162895275X

Internationalizing a School of Education examines how Michigan State University has pursued internationalization and globalization through an integration-infusion approach to research, teaching, and outreach. The integration-infusion approach was introduced in MSU’s College of Education in the early 1980s as a replacement for the more disconnected comparative education program. This approach offers a vision where all faculty members and students are knowledgeable about education in all its international diversity, where their conceptions and aspirations are influenced by international research and experience, and where they reach out to other countries in collaborative efforts to do research, inform policy, and improve practice. Featuring profiles of faculty members and students who were leaders of this integration-infusion approach, this text provides a survey of the landscape of comparative education in the United States while examining channels of internationalization specific to MSU, highlighting the success of integration-infusion at an institutional level.

Public Policy and Higher Education

Public Policy and Higher Education
Author: Edward P. St. John
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2013
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0415893569

Amid changing economic and social contexts, radical changes have occurred in public higher education policies over the past three decades. Public Policy and Higher Educationprovides readers with new ways to analyze these complex state policies and offers the tools to examine how policies affect students’ access and success in college. Rather than arguing for a single approach, the authors examine how policymakers and higher education administrators can work to inform and influence change within systems of higher education using research-based evidence along with consideration of political and historical values and beliefs. Special Features: Case Studies—allow readers to examine strategies used by different types of colleges to improve access and retention. Reflective Exercises—encourage readers to discuss state and campus context for policy decisions and to think about the strategies used in a state or institution. Approachable Explanations—unpack complex public policies and financial strategies for readers who seek understanding of public policy in higher education. Research-Based Recommendations—explore how policymakers, higher education administrators and faculty can work together to improve quality, diversity, and financial stewardship. This textbook is an invaluable resource for graduate students, administrators, policymakers, and researchers who seek to learn more about the crucial contexts underlying policy decisions and college access.