18.034 - Beyond Interpretation: A Sociocultural Approach to Educational Policy Studies

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

State and federal educational policies increasingly aim to shape local actors’ behavior by setting standards or quantifiable performance indicators, under the implicit assumption that local actors across disparate settings will implement these policies in a similar, linear fashion. However, recent research indicates that policy enactment is a more complicated process, as local actors negotiate, (re)shape, and contest policies. In this symposium we 1) explicate a sociocultural approach to policy analysis, 2) empirically examine four crucial policy areas that have not often been analyzed from this perspective, 3) center the roles of local contexts and actors in policy enactment, and 4) surface considerations of race, gender, ability, and political-economy that have heretofore been under-addressed in the sociocultural literature.

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Division L - Section 7: Social Context and Structural Inequalities

Chair

• Erica Owyang Turner, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• Toward a More Robust Approach to Educational Policy Analysis - Abigail J Beneke, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Using Fiscal Policy to Increase Equity: Context Matters for the Outcomes of Weighted Student Funding - Lena Batt, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Policy Debates Through Religious Lenses: Contesting the Accommodation of Transgender Students - Caitlin Ione Brecklin, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Dynamic Working Conditions: A Frontline Examination of Special Education Policy Implementation - Helen Rose Miesner, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Discussant

• Angelina E. Castagno, Northern Arizona University