Situating Subjectivities in the Macrosocial Policy Context: Critical/Queer Multifocal Policy Research

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Deliberative Imaginings: Examinations of Race, Gender, and Space in Educational Policy

Abstract

This is a reflexive account of a multifocal policy analysis (Young, 1999) that employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. The traditional study examined the relationship between principals’ perceived instructional influence and teachers’ perceptions of working conditions. The critical study employed ethnographic methods to study the subjectivity of teachers and leaders and their relationship to one another within a neoliberal policy regime. Theories of subjectivity revealed that policies are contextually and individually dependent, which was particularly useful for making sense of both studies. This paper draws on queer and critical theory to argue for the re-appropriation of traditional methods of policy analysis in order to challenge marginalization of critical voices in scholarship, and enhance the critical, multifocal approach to policy analysis.

Author

• Bryan J. Duarte, Purdue University