Session Information
23 SES 13 A, Evidence-based Policies in Education
Paper Session
Contribution
A growing body of work has directed critical attention to processes of policy movement associated with regionalisation, Europeanisation and globalisation (Seddon and Levin, 2013; Clarke et al., 2015). While supranational organisations privilege some policy options over others, context matters as global policy scripts are re-contextualised within local sites of influence. Using an assemblage perspective (Ong and Collier, 2005) and drawing on Scandinavian institutionalism (Czarniawska and Sevón, 2005), this paper examines how a dominant policy agenda concerned with ‘what works’ is subject to selective re-contextualisation in local policy contexts.
Post-devolution UK offers a natural laboratory for exploring how policy ideas move across geographical borders and organisational boundaries in a closely linked system. The national governments of Britain have espoused a commitment to a more de-centralised public sector that makes better use of evidence to shape policy direction (UK Parliament, 2016; Christie, 2011; Welsh Government, 2014). From 2010, among the various instantiations of the evidence movement, seven What Works Centres were established to promote the generation, transmission and adoption of evidence for decision makers and practitioners (Cabinet Office, 2014). In 2014, the UK What Works Network expanded to include What Works Scotland and the Public Policy Institute for Wales as affiliated bodies.
Drawing on education-focused activities of the What Works Network, this paper considers how the global script of evidence-based education is adopted and adapted in the light of the past trajectories, endogenous characteristics, dominant (institutionalised) and emerging policy and professional logics of each jurisdiction. Specifically it considers the mode of engagement with decision makers and practitioners, and the underpinning model of professional learning.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Cabinet Office (2014) What Works? Evidence for Decision Makers. London: Cabinet Office. Christie, C. (2011) Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services. Edinburgh: APS Group Scotland. Clarke, J., Bainton, D., Lendvai, N. & Stubbs, P. (2015) Making Policy Move. Towards a Politics of Translation and Assemblage. Bristol: Policy Press. Czarniawska, B. & Sevón, G. (eds.) (2005) Global ideas: How Ideas, Objects, and Practices Travel in the Global Economy. Malmö and Copenhagen: Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press. Nussbaum, M. C. (2011) Creating capabilities: the human development approach. Cambridge: Belknap Press. Ong, A. and Collier, S.J. (Eds) (2005) Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics and Ethics as Anthropological Problems. London: Blackwell. Seddon, T. & Levin, J.S. (2013) (eds) Educators, professionalism and politics. Global transitions, national spaces and professional projects, London: Routledge. Sen, A. K. (2009) The Idea of Justice. London: Penguin. United Kingdom Parliament (2016) Cities and Local Government Devolution Act. 28.01.2016. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/1/contents/enacted/data.htm Welsh Government (2014) Devolution, Democracy, Delivery. Improving Public Services for People in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Government.
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