Comparative Education Policy Implementation for a More Equitable World

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Undoubtedly, the goal of increased equity for historically marginalized populations, and greater democratic participation for all citizens, has become a watchword of many recent education policy trends. Although it was an intention present from the outset of many state education systems, equity was more often eclipsed by concerns for efficiency, obedience, and control. Today, education policy for equity increasingly has become an official state—even global—strategy for creating greater equity and thereby redressing historical injustices. Policy implementation studies require close attention to how such policy goals are achieved, compromised, or even thwarted in practice.

Meanwhile, comparative education policy studies have underscored in recent years the growing complications of education “governance,” in which non-state or suprastate actors have increased influence, if not outright control, over important policy making functions that had previously been the exclusive function of the sovereign state (Mundy et al 2016). Yet the governance picture for the implementation phases of policy processes is still being drawn, and needs further exploration. No doubt, the rise of so-called “private-public partnerships,” venture philanthropy, and the like, suggest that polyarchic governance goes beyond policymaking to policy implementation and service provision. How can a closer examination of implementation processes allow us to assess what social actors and logics have the greatest bearing on them, and how this impacts the eventual outcomes of education provision in terms of equity and inclusion?

This paper session consists of individual papers that interrogate and closely examine how education policies designed to advance equity and inclusion may sometimes fall short of their goals. Policy implementation as enactment and appropriation is a broad analytic lens used to engage in anticipatory thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis of policy documents, social network analysis, and qualitative interviews and observations regarding education policy for greater equity.

Sub Unit

• Globalization & Education SIG

Chair

• Bradley Levinson, Indiana University - Bloomington

Individual Presentations

• Composition of Education policy network in Pakistan for access to education and its implications for policy formation and implementation - Moaaz Hamid, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Foreign Language Education at Compulsory Level Under the “Double Reduction” Educational Reform - Suliya Nijiati, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Revisiting Vietnam's Đổi mới policy in education: Policy, practice, and its implications on equity - Thi Nhu Quynh Dang, Indiana University Bloomington