Argumentative Discourse Analysis as a Tool for Educational Policy Scholars

• In Event: 49.039 - Moving Beyond Tradition: Critical Approaches to Education Policy Analysis

Abstract

Educational policy scholars such as DeBray (2006), McGuinn (2006), and Mintrom (2000) have sought to expand the study of interests in deliberative policy making by calling traditional approaches to task for failing to acknowledge the ideological preferences of interest-based actors, the historical and social contexts within which educational policies are constructed, and the interest-based orientations of advocacy coalitions. Yet, these studies failed to fully acknowledge the learning that takes place within participatory politics, often labeling individual beliefs at the onset, thus dismissing the argumentative view that the beliefs of actors are never fully understood and are constantly being renegotiated by the discourses and contexts that shape deliberative policy making. Hajer’s (2003, 2005, 2006) argumentative discourse analysis provides a unique approach to the analysis of deliberative policy making seeking to address the limitations of traditional policy studies. This particular approach provides interpretive insight into political processes where the division of roles may be unclear. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the political performances of the Obama/Duncan Administration acted in coordination with neoliberal and globalized discourses to codetermine the authoring of the Title I School Improvement Grant of 2009.

Author

• Bradley W. Carpenter, University of Louisville