The Contexts of Education Policy: An Analysis of Attendance Policy Practice in Two School Districts

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-1 - An Examination of School Policies in Practice

Abstract

This paper reviews a comparative case study of school attendance policy practice in two suburban school districts. Using a critical policy analysis approach, this study examined the ways the broader institutional contexts, and specifically the racial, socioeconomic, and academic contexts, shaped the broader narratives and actual policy practice in these school districts. In addition, this study revealed how district administrators appropriated and articulated these broader narratives within their policy practice, thus creating a “logic of practice” that represented their own agency, power, and placement within this district policy context. Finally, the study revealed how power and privilege shaped narratives and actions (or non-actions) by the policy actors (i.e., school administrators) in the policy process.

Author

• Andrea E. Evans, Governors State University