A leap of faith: overcoming doubt to do good when policy is absurd
Article
Margetts, Fiona, Whitty, Stephen Jonathan and van der Hoorn, Bronte. 2024. "A leap of faith: overcoming doubt to do good when policy is absurd." Journal of Education Policy. 39 (2), pp. 191-213. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2023.2198488
| Article Title | A leap of faith: overcoming doubt to do good when policy is absurd |
|---|---|
| ERA Journal ID | 19916 |
| Article Category | Article |
| Authors | Margetts, Fiona, Whitty, Stephen Jonathan and van der Hoorn, Bronte |
| Journal Title | Journal of Education Policy |
| Journal Citation | 39 (2), pp. 191-213 |
| Number of Pages | 23 |
| Year | 2024 |
| Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
| ISSN | 0268-0939 |
| 1464-5106 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2023.2198488 |
| Web Address (URL) | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680939.2023.2198488 |
| Abstract | University institutional policy is poorly understood. While policy is required by law for universities to accept funding and is revered for articulating values, mitigating risk, and guiding practice, policy is frequently considered absurd and resisted in practice. This is the policy-practice divide. To gain a better understanding of this divide and the nature of the resistance, we asked policy actors to describe their experiences with policy development, implementation, enactment, and review. We asked: If policy is absurd, what is the nature of the relationship between policy and university management, and how do those who enact policy deal with this absurdity? We discovered that university management has an infinitely regressive self-fulfilling relationship with policy because they intentionally exclude the workforce from policy-making and see themselves as solely responsible for policy interpretation and implementation. However, when Kierkegaard’s concepts of absurdity, faith, hope, and doubt are applied to policy actors’ experiences, we see that resistance can be characterised positively as a ‘leap of faith’, where those who enact policy overcome their doubts and reinterpret it to achieve some semblance of good. This is an unintended consequence for managerialism, as deliberately creating a policy-practice divide solicits resistive ‘good’ practices from policy actors. |
| Keywords | Higher education; institutional policy; policy-practice divide; cognitive dissonance |
| Related Output | |
| Is part of | Gripped by managerialism's claw: Power, policy, and resistance in the neoliberal university |
| ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 390303. Higher education |
| Public Notes | This article is part of a UniSQ Thesis by publication. See Related Output. |
| Byline Affiliations | School of Business |
| School of Surveying and Built Environment |
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| License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | ||
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