The aporia of education policy: national school reform and the limits of policy enactment
Article
Article Title | The aporia of education policy: national school reform and the limits of policy enactment |
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ERA Journal ID | 34674 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Orchard, Hannah, Hickey, Andrew and Riddle, Stewart |
Journal Title | Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education |
Number of Pages | 15 |
Year | 2024 |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 0159-6306 |
1469-3739 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2024.2400236 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2024.2400236 |
Abstract | In this paper, we deploy the concept of aporia to consider the ways in which enactments of policy become ‘stuck’ as policy flows between national and sub-national education systems. We illustrate the overlapping political, governmental and bureaucratic spheres of influence that mediate how national school reform agendas are received and enacted by schooling systems. Our analysis is based on interviews with senior bureaucrats from an Australian non-government sector’s national and state peak bodies representing Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Drawing on conceptualisations of aporia as an impasse and more deliberatively, Lather’s interpretation of aporia as ‘moments of possibility’, we argue that aporias created by bureaucratic barriers, government timelines, government evaluation processes and the placement of accountability measures over schooling prevents the meaningful enactment of policy within school settings. We argue that there is a need to consider the generative possibilities that exist within this situation of policy aporia, and demarcate where possibilities to move beyond ‘stuck’ policy might arise. |
Keywords | education policy; aporia; school reform; national school reform agreement |
Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 390201. Education policy |
Byline Affiliations | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/z9751/the-aporia-of-education-policy-national-school-reform-and-the-limits-of-policy-enactment
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