北京师范大学 教師教育研究中心
教育研究方法讲座系列 (2)
教育政策研究
Policy Studies in Education
TSANG, Wing Kwong
wktsang@cuhk.edu.hk
www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~wktsang/
A Roadmap of Education Research
Approach
Area
Curriculum &
instruction
School
administration
Education
policy
Economics of
education
Sociology of
education
.
.
.
.
Psychology of
education
Thick & deep
meanings
embedded
in ”texts” (e.g.
hermeneutics,
narrative
analysis, …)
Thick & deep
meanings
embedded in
context (e.g.
ethnography,
discourse
analysis, …)
Similarities &
differences in
social/ed.phenomena
of different contexts
(e.g. comparative &
historical studies, …)
Probabilistic
regularities in
social
phenomena (e.g.
social/ed.
experiments,
social surveys, …
Universal
regularities in
social/ed.
phenomena
讲题大纲：
1. 教育政策研究的发展：学科、领域与视域的综述
2. 教育政策研究的知识论基础：理论视域的探讨
3. 教育政策研究的历史-比较基础：国家理论的综述
4. 教育政策研究的规范基础：政策價值争议的综述
5. 教育政策研究的制度基础：政策制度主义的综述
6. 教育政策制订过程的研究
7. 教育政策实施过程的研究(一)
8. 教育政策实施过程的研究(二)
9. 教育政策评估过程的研究
10. 教育政策與教師 ：Object, Subject or Agent
北京师范大学
教育研究方法讲座系列 (2)
教育政策研究
第一讲
教育政策研究的发展：
学科、领域与视域的综述
Discipline, Field, & Perspectives
(A)
Definition of the Discipline
and
Definition of the Field
Policy Studies in Education: An Overview
1. Definitions of the discipline: Policy Studies
a. Definition of the subject of inquiry
b. Definition of the issue of inquiry
 Study for policy
 Study of policy
c. Definition of the method of inquiry
2. Definition of the field: Policy studies in
education
a. Study for education policy
b. Study of education policy
Policy Studies: Definitions of a Discipline
1. Definitions of the subject inquiry
a. Definition of policy
 The Oxford English Dictionary: "A course of action or
principle adopted or proposed by a government, party,
individual, etc.; any course of action adopted as
advantageous or expedient."
 “Policy is defined as a ‘standing decision’ characterized by
behavioral consistency and repetitiveness on the part of
both who make it and those who abide by it.” (Eulau &
Prewitt, 1973, p. 465)
 “Routinization (in complex social life) is achieved through
the formulation and implementation of policies. Policies are
statements that prescribe courses of action in
organizations. They govern the internal functioning of the
organizations, their external relations, and the way they
attain their goals.” (Midgley, 2000, p. 3)
Policy Studies: Definitions of a Discipline
1. Definitions of the subject inquiry
a. Definition of policy
 Policy is “a projected program of goals, values, and
practices.” (Lasswell & Kaplan, 1970, p. 71)
 "To have a policy is to have rational reasons or
argurments which contain both a claim to an
understanding of a problem and a solution. It put forward
what is and what ought to be done. A policy offers a kind
of theory upon which a claim for legitimacy is made."
(Parson, 1995, p. 15)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
1. Definitions of the subject inquiry
b. Definition of public policy
 “Public policy is whatever governments choose to do or
not to do.” (Dye, 1998, p. 2)
 William Jenkins conceptualizes public policy as “ a set of
interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or group
of actors concerning the selection of goals and the means
of achieving them within a specific situation where those
decisions should, in principle, be within the power of
those actors to achieve.” (Quoted in Howlett & Ramesh,
1995, p. 5)
 David Easton defines public policy as “the authoritative
allocation of values for the whole society.” (Easton, 1953,
p. 129)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
1. Definitions of the subject inquiry
b. Definition of public policy
 Giandomenico Majone “As politicians know too well but
social scientists too often forget, public policy is made of
language. Whether in written or oral form, argument is
central in all stages of the policy process.” (Majone, 1989,
p.1)
 “The practice of public policy making largely a matter of
persuasion. So is the discipline of studying public policy
making aptly described as itself being a ‘persuasion’. It is
a mood more than a science, a loosely organized body of
percepts and positions rather than a tightly integrated
body of systemic knowledge, more art and craft and
genuine ‘science’.” (Goodin, Rein and Moran, 2006, p. 5)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
1. Definitions of the subject inquiry
b. Definition of public policy
 “Public policy is a discursive construct rather than a selfdefining phenomenon.” (Fischer, 2003, p. 69) ”
“We define policy as a political agreement on a course of
action (or inaction) designed to resolve or mitigate
problems on the political agenda. This agreement…is an
intellectual constructs rather than a self-defining
phenomenon. Discursively constructed, there can be no
inherently unique decision, institutions, or actors
constituting public policy that are to be identified,
uncovered, and explained. Public policy, as such, is an
analytical category with a substantive content cannot be
simply researched; more fundamentally, it has to be
interpreted.” (p.60)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
1. Definitions of the subject inquiry
c. Definition of social policy
 “Social policy …refers to the actual policies and programs

of governments that affect people’s welfare.” (Midley, 2000,
p.4)
“Social policy may be defined as policy activities which
influence welfare. Whilst non-state bodies may be
described as having policies, a generic expression like
‘social policy’ is primarily used to define the role of the
state in relation to the welfare of its citizens.” (Hill, 1997, p.
1)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
2. Definition of issues of inquiry
a. Harold Lasswell characterizes that “As a working
definition, we say that the policy science are
concerned with knowledge of and in the decision
processes of the public and civic order.” (1971,
p.1, original emphasis)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
2. Definition of issues of inquiry
b. Study for policy:
 William Dunn indicates that “policy analysis is a problem
solving discipline. …Policy analysis addresses five types of
questions:
• What is the nature of the problem for which solution is sought?
• Which of two or more courses of action should be chosen to
solve the problem?
• What are the outcomes of choosing that course of action?
• Does achieving the outcomes contribute to solving the problem?
• What future outcomes can be expected if other courses of action
are chosen?” (p. 3)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
2. Definition of issues of inquiry
b. Study for policy
 Policy Studies generates knowledge for problemsolving
- Problem recognition
- Proposal of solution
- Choice of solution
- Putting solution into
effect
- Monitoring results
- Agenda-setting
- Policy formation
- Decision-making
- Policy implementation
- Policy evaluation
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
2. Definition of issues of inquiry
c. Study of policy
 Thomas Dye defines the study of public policy as “the
description and explanation of the causes and
consequences of government activities, This focus
involves
• a description of the content of public policy;
• an analysis of the impact of social, economic, and political
forces on the content of the public policy;
• an inquiry into the effect of various institutional arrangements
and political processes on public policy; and
• an evaluation of the consequences of public policies on society,
both expected and unexpected.” (p.5)
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
2. Definition of issues of inquiry
c. Study of policy
 Policy Studies generates knowledge of policy
- Study of the policy contents or substances
- Study of the policy process
- Institutional or systemic study of policy
- Study of the policy frame and policy discourse
- Critical study of ideological implications of policy
Policy Studies: Definition of a Discipline
3. Definitions of methods of inquiry
a. The Analytic-technical method
 Policy science movement
 Political system method
b. The interpretive-political method
 Study of meanings and values invested in policy
 Study of text, textuality and intertextuality of policy
documents
 Study of policy argument
 Study of policy frame
c. The discursive critical method
 Study of policy discourse
 Study of dominant ideology at work in policy
Policy Studies in Education: Definition of a
Field
1. Definition of education policy: Whatever a
government choose to do or not to do in
education.”
2. Definition of issues of inquiry
a. Study for education policy
 Status-quo study and definition of the education




problems
Causality study for policy solution of the education policy
Rational study for choice of solutions
Study of policy implementation
Policy evaluation study
Policy Studies in Education: Definition of a
Field
2. Definition of issues of inquiry
……
b. Study of education policy




Study of the substance of the education policy
Study of the process of the education policy
Institutional or systemic studies of the education policy
Study the formation of the policy frame and discourse in
education
 Critical study of ideological implications of the education
policy
(II)
The State of the Art:
The Overview of the Discipline
of Policy Studies
Journals on Policy Studies
1. Policy Studies Journal (1971present), publisher: Policy
Studies Organization (US based)
2. Review of Policy Research,
(1981-present), publisher: Policy
Studies Organization (US based)
3. Politics and Policy, (1973present), publisher: Policy
Studies Organization (US based)
Journals on Policy Studies
4. Journal of Public Policy (1981present), publisher: Cambridge
University Press (UK based)
5. Journal of European Public
Policy (1994-
Journals on Education Policy
Educational Evaluation and
Policy Analysis, (1979-present)
Publisher: AERA (US based)
Journal of Education Policy,
(1986-present) Publisher: Taylor
& Francis (UK based)
Educational Policy, (1987present) Publisher: Sage (US
based)
(2006)
(2006)
(2007)
(1999)
(1999)
(2009)
Scholarship
(Subject, Issue & Method)
+
_
+
_
Institution
(Journal,
Department,
and
Association)
The State of the Art:
The Overview of the Discipline of Policy Studies
 Theoretical perspectives in policy studies
Analytic-technical perspective
Interpretive-political perspective
Discursive-critical perspective
(III)
Historical Development of
Policy Studies as a Discipline
Historical Development of Policy Studies
as a Discipline
 Pre-historical period, from the Enlightenment to the WWI
1500s to 1910s
From the Prince’s advisor to social physicist
 The formative period, between the two world wars
 The rise to prominence in the post WWII period: The
Advent of the policy science
From military operation to operation research and management
science
From war of intelligence to cybernetics to information
technology
From training camp to learning psychology to marketing
research
Historical Development of Policy Studies
as a Discipline
 The challenge of the bounded rationality and the science
of muddling through
Grand-comprehensive rationality meet with political reality
 The rise and fall of the policy science in the 1960s to the
1970s
The War on Poverty
The Vietnam War
The Watergate scandals
The Energy Crisis
 The post-modernist period from the 1990s to present
The linguistic, argumentative and persuasive turns
Historical Development of Policy Studies as
a Discipline
 From the Prince’s advisor to social physicist
From Niccolo Machiavilli (1469-1527) The Prince (1532)
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Leviathan (1651) to
August Comte (1798-1857) Treatise of Sociology (1851)
Niccolo Machiavilli (1469-1527)
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
August Comte (1798-1857)
Historical Development of Policy Studies
 From the Prince’s advisor to social physicist
From Niccolo Machiavilli (1469-1527) The Prince (1532)
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Leviathan (1651) to
August Comte (1798-1857) Treatise of Sociology (1851)
 US Government sponsored the Franklin Institute
(1824-) to study the causes of explosions in
steamboat boilers in 1832
 The rise and fall of the American Social Science
Association (ASSA) 1865-1915
Historical Development of Policy Studies
The initiatives around the WWI:
Upon President Wilson's request, National Research
Council was established in 1916 to assist the
government to fight WWI
Establishment of the Social Science Research Council in
1923 and the Brookings Institute in December, 1927.
Charles Merriam's advocacy in his Presidential address
in American Political Science Association in 1925 for
researches of applied and multidisciplinary social
science on social problems
Historical Development of Policy Studies
 The Post-WWII and Cold-War initiatives:
The success of Operations Research (OR) and
Psychology of War in WWII
The Congress initiated the establishment of National
Science Foundation (NSF) in 1950 to serve as
instrument to sponsor scientific research informing
public policy
Historical Development of Policy Studies
Harold Lasswell’s three-perspective formulation of
The Policy Orientation (1951) in the book Policy
Sciences edited by him and Daniel Lerner
 Multidisciplinary Perspective
 Contextual and Problem-Oriented Perspective
 The Normative Perspective
Historical Development of Policy Studies
Developments of policy orientations from the 1950s to
the 1960s
Multidisciplinary Perspective
The theoretical hegemony of the economic analysis,
system approach, and/or management science
Robert K. Merton’s call for applied social science
research and theories of middle range (1967)
Historical Development of Policy Studies
Developments of policy orientations from the 1950s to
the 1960s
Contextual and Problem-Oriented Perspective
Demarcation of knowledge in and of policy process, i.e.
policy analysis and policy-process analysis
The growth of policy analysis: the heyday positivistempiricism and instrumental rationalism
• Stuart S. Negal’s conceptualization of policy analysis “Policy
analysis can be defined as determining which of various
alternative public or governmental policies will most achieve
a given set of goals in light of the relations between the
policies and the goals.”
• Stokey, E. & Zeckhauser, R. (1978) A Primer for Policy
Analysis. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Quade, E.S. (1975) Analysis for Public Decisions. New York:
Elsever.
Historical Development of Policy Studies
Developments of policy orientations from the 1950s to
the 1960s
Contextual and Problem-Oriented Perspective
David Easton’s conception of political system (1953)
Robert Dahl & Charles Lindblom’s Pluralist challenge
Charles Lindblom’s science of muddling through
(1959/1979)
Simon & March’s conception of bounded rationalism (1958)
Aaron Wildavsky’s (1969) critique on program-planningbudgeting system (PPBS)
Historical Development of Policy Studies
 Developments of policy orientations from the 1950s
to the 1960s
 Contextual and Problem-Oriented Perspective
• Debate on policy process
–
–
Quade's (1975) elements of policy analysis: (1) identification of
objectives, (2) specification of alternatives, (3) recommending policy
action, (4) monitoring policy outcomes, and (5) evaluating policy
performance
May and Wildavsky's (1978) reformulation of policy process: (1)
agenda setting, (2) issue analysis, (3) initiation, (4) estimation, and (5)
termination.
Historical Development of Policy Studies
Developments of policy orientations from the 1950s
to the 1960s
The Normative Perspective
 Neglect of normative perspective by the value-free
policy analyst & muddling through theorist
 Reinstating values in Policy Studies and challenge
from political philosophers, John Rawls (1971) and
Robert Nozick (1974)
Historical Development of Policy Studies
 Growth and Development of Policy Science through
the 1970s
 The rise of the welfare state and J.F. Kennedy and L.B.
Johnson Administration’s Great Society Project
 Robert S. McNarama and the transplantation of
rhetoric Program, Planning, and Budgetary system
from the U.S. Department of Defense
Historical Development of Policy Studies
 Growth and Development of Policy Science through
the 1970s
 The rise of the welfare state and J.F. Kennedy and L.B.
Johnson Administration’s Great Society Project
 Robert S. McNarama and the transplantation of
rhetoric Program, Planning, and Budgetary system
from the U.S. Department of Defense
 The expansion of the policy analysis




The mean-end causal analysis
Public decision analysis
Evaluation analysis
Implementation analysis
Historical Development of Policy Studies
 Growth and Development of Policy Science through
the 1970s
 The contextual reality and constraint (deLeon, 1988)
 The War on Poverty
 The Vietnam War
 The Watergate scandals
 The Energy Crisis
Historical Development of Policy Studies
 From Policy Analysis to Policy Inquiry: The 1990s and
Beyond
 The Post-positivist challenge:
 Frank Fischer & John Forester (1987) Confronting Values
in Policy Analysis
 John Forester (1989) Planning in the Face of Power
 Frank Fischer & John Forester (1993) The Argumentative
Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning.
 Schon Donald & Martin Rein (1994) Frame Reflection:
Toward the Resolution of Intractable Policy
Controversies.
 The coining of the concept of Design Rationality
Historical Development of Policy Studies
From Policy Analysis to Policy Inquiry: The 1990s and
Beyond
 From instrumental rationalism to critical and
communicative rational approach
 From value-free analysis to political philosophy and
communicative ethics for policy argument
 Argumentative, narrative and discursive (linguistic) turns
of Policy Studies
 Planning in the face of power and the governmentality
approach to Policy Studies
(IV)
Development of Policy Studies in Education as a
Field in the Twentieth Century:
The Welfare State Paradigm
Late James S. Coleman’s Odyssey: The case of US
 James S. Coleman’s odyssey of research in education
policy, 1960s to 1980s
The first Coleman Report 1965-66
Policy research on inequality of Educational Opportunity
Design of effective policy ends and intervention measures
The second Coleman Report in 1975 AERA annual conference
Policy research on the phenomenon of the White Flight
Controversy over the unwanting findings
The third Coleman Report in 1980
 Policy research on the effectiveness of public and private schools
The argumentative turn of the report
Late James S. Coleman’s Odyssey
James S. Coleman
(1926-1995)
Late James S. Coleman’s odyssey
 The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v.
Board of Education in 1954
Forensic admission of Kenneth Clark’s
psychological experiment on dolls
 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 & the Section 402
stipulation
“The commission shall conduct a survey and make a
report to the president and the Congress, within two
years of the enactment of this title, concerning the
lack of availability of equal educational opportunities
for individuals by reason of race, color, religion, or
national origin in public educational institutions at all
levels in the United States, its territories and
possessions, and the District of Columbia.”
(Civil Right Act 1964, Section 402)
Late James S. Coleman’s odyssey
 The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of
Education in 1954
Forensic admission of Kennth Clark’s psychological
experiment on dolls
 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 & the Section 402
stipulation
 US Office of Education commissioned a survey on the
availability of equal educational opportunity among
social group (April 1965)
 James S. Coleman's study on Equality of Educational
Opportunity (to be completed in July 1966)
Late James S. Coleman’s Odyssey
The odyssey of the First Coleman Report:
 From research report to summaries
 Jeanette Hopkins’ summary
 Alexander Mood’s summary
 Helen Rowan’s summary
 The myth of the Busing Policy: Judge J. Skelly Wright
ruled in the case Hobsen v. Hansen, in the District of
Columbia (Washington D.C.) that "the school board (should)
integrate its facilities …and to provide busing to take
children from overcrowded black schools to less crowded,
mainly, white ones." (Hunt, 1985, p. 79)
 From research finding to policy implementations
Late James S. Coleman’s Odyssey
The odyssey of the First Coleman Report:
From research finding to policy implementations
Nixon’s Message on Education Reform of March 3 1970
Delay Impact or “just a simple rationalization for
spending less money.”
Busing controversy spread
Late James S. Coleman’s Odyssey
 Invitation to the 1975 AERA annual conference
 "White Flight": the unwanted consequence of the
desegregation policy
 The odyssey of the Second Coleman Report:
Among waves of criticism from fellow
educational researchers and sociologists, there
was the president of ASA Alfred M. Lee's
campaign to the ASA's Committee on
Professional Ethics to regard Coleman's research
effort and advocacy on "Trends in School
Segregation" as unethical
 Elected as President of ASA 1991-92
Late James S. Coleman’s Odyssey
 1980 Public and Private School Study
commissioned by the National Center for the
Educational Statistics of the Department of
Education: The argumentative turn
“There are two fundamentally different schools of thoughts
concerning the role of scientific research. … One school of
thought sees policy research as private dialogue between the
policy maker and the policy researcher. The policy makers poses
the problem and the questions, and the policy researchers acts as
adviser to the prince, to answer the questions on the basis of
existing scientific knowledge if possible, and if not, to gather the
right kind of data and analyze it properly to arrive at a conclusive
answer. This conception of a clear, orderly process, with the final
stage being implementation of the policy researcher’s results. The
scientific answers are conclusive, sources of controversy are
stilled by the conclusiveness of the research results, and rational
action based on scientific evidence replaces interest group
politics.
“The other school of thought – the one to which we subscribe –
see policy research as a largely public activity, one in which there
is no ‘policy maker’, and in which the policy researcher’s role is
that of the servant of multiple interests. …The contribution of the
policy research to the end result is that of raising the level of
discourse which leads to policy: facilitating disposal of false
issues, narrowing attention and political conflict to the important
issues. The research results cannot specify policy to be
implemented; they are only one of a number of input which
makes that process a more open one, helping to provide a
window to the consequences of policy that enables more persons
to effectively press for their interests and ideals.”
(Coleman, et al., 1982, p.220-221)
Stephen J. Ball's personal review of
“policy sociology”
Policy research on New Right Education Reform
in the UK
Policy studies as text analysis
Policy studies as discourse analysis
Stephen J. Ball's personal review of “policy
sociology”
Stephen J. Ball's personal review of “policy
sociology”
 Education Reform: A Post-Structural Approach
 “Policy is clearly a matter of the ‘authoritative
allocation of values’; policies are the operational
statements of values, ‘statements of prescriptive
intent’. But values do not float free of their social
context. We need to ask whose values are validated
in policy, and whose are not. Thus, ‘The authoritative
allocation of values draws our attention to the
centrality of power and control in the concept of
policy’. Policies project images of an ideal society
(education policies project definitions of what counts
as education).” (Ball, 1990, p.3)
Stephen J. Ball's personal review of “policy
sociology”
 Education Reform: A Post-Structural Approach
 In another occasion, Ball specifies his own approach
to policy study that “in current writing on policy issue
I actually inhabit two very different conceptualization
of policy. …I will call these policy as text and policy
as discourse. …The point I am moving to is that
policy is not one or the other, but both: they are
‘implicit in each other’.” (1994, p.15)
Stephen J. Ball's personal review of “policy
sociology”
 In his personal review, Ball quoted Grace’s
distinction between two approaches of policy
research prevailing in post-WWII UK, namely
policy science and policy scholarship
approaches (Ball, 1997)
 A policy science approach "attempts to extract a
social phenomenon from its relational context in
order to subject it to close analysis. …The
concern of a policy science approach is to
understand present phenomena in order to
formulate a rational and scientific prescription for
action and future policy." (Grace, 1995, pp.2-3)
Stephen J. Ball's personal review of “policy
sociology”
…..policy science and policy scholarship
approaches
A policy scholarship approach "resists the
tendency of policy science to abstract problem
from their relational settings by insisting that the
problem can only be understood in the complexity
of those relations. In particular, it represents a view
that a social-historical approach to research can
illuminate the cultural and ideological struggles in
which schooling is located." (Grace, 1995, p. 3)
Stephen J. Ball's personal review of “policy
sociology”
Policy Scholarship
Policy Science
a. Design and Scope
Policy oriented
Multi-focus
Multi-level
Temporal
Global/local
Linked focus
Practice oriented
Single focus
Single level
Atemporal
National/general
Detached
b. Embedded
Context rich
Conceptually 'tick'
Context barren
Conceptually 'thin'
c. An ethics of research
Social justice
Critical
Social efficiency
Incorporated
d. Peopling policy
Voiced
Silent
(Ball, 1997, P. 264)
(V)
Development of Policy Studies in Education
in the 21st Century:
Neoliberalism under
Global-Informational Paradigm
The rise of Neo-liberalism
The advent of the Global-Informational
Paradigm
The Internal Tension between Grobalization and
Glocalization in Education Policy
Stephen J. Ball’s emerging approach to policy text,
policy enactment, policy discourse, policy network
and policy governance
Lecture 1:
Development of Policy Studies in Education:
Discipline, Field and Perspective
END