Investigating the Every Student Succeeds Act Discourse Coalitions in Congressional Hearings and on Social Media Through Network Analytical Approaches

• In Event: 66.075 - Politics of State and Federal Education Reform

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) discourse coalitions in congressional hearings and on social media. Discourse coalitions are defined as the clusters of policy actors holding similar policy preferences and presenting similar arguments. The ESSA discourse coalitions were identified from the data collected from 26 testimonies in congressional hearings on ESSA, and 160,126 tweets containing the hashtag #ESSA from 2016 to 2018. Discourse network analysis was performed to analyze the congressional and social media data, respectively. The results indicate that major policy actors were active both in congressional hearings and on social media. They articulated many competing policy preferences on equity and accountability. This study provides timely insights into the current public discourse on ESSA.

Authors

• David R J Fikis, Georgia State University

• Yinying Wang, Georgia State University