Hong Kong Education Policy and Practice
Topic 2
Policy Studies in Education: Definition of the Field
A. Policy: In Search of Definition
1. Thomas Dye’s Definition: The action and/or the inaction of the state
2. Stuart S, Negal’s Definition: Goals, means, relations and conclusions
3. The Interactionist Definition: A process of interaction and decision
4. Aron Wildavsky’s Definition: as both process and product
5. Stephen Ball’s Definition: The authoritative allocation of values
B. Constituents of Public Policy
1. The Decision Makers
2. The Actors
a. Administrative officials
b. Program administrators
b. Front-line service deliverers
c. Primary policy recipients
d. Stakeholders
3. The Policy Goals
4. The Policy Means
5. The Policy Conclusions
6 The Policy Implementation
a. The stick
b. The carrot
c. The sermon
7. The Policy Outcome and Evaluation
8. The Values Prevailed
a. Policy as text
b. Policy as signifier
c. Policy as ideological apparatus
C. Policy Study: Definition of the Field
1. Study of the Policy
a. Study of the policy substabce
b. Study of the policy process
c. Study of the policy outcome
d. Study of the values authoritatively allocated
e. Study of the policy discourse
2. Study for the Policy
a. Study for policy making
- Causal analysis
- Feasibility analysis
- Cost-effectiveness analysis
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Cost-utility analysis
b. Study for policy advocacy
c. Study for policy criticism
W.K.Tsang
HK Education Policy & Practice
D. Perspectives in Policy Studies in Education
1. Analytical-technical perspective in policy studies in education
a. Epistemological assumptions
i. Empirically, realities under study are observable, recordable,
measurable and calculable
ii. Analytically, the phenomena under study are dividable into causally
connected parts, which in turn form a comprehensive whole
iii. Methodologically, propositions under investigation are verifiable or even
repeatable similar to laboratorial experiments in natural sciences
iv. Results and conclusion drawn from studies are universally applicable to
great varieties of situations
b. Practical assumptions
i. Policy makings are technical and rational choices of the best solutions
to the well identified and defined problems
ii. Technical procedures of intervention can therefore be specified and
even standardized
iii. Policy means and measures used to intervene can manipulated and
engineered
iv. The policy environments to be engineered will respond and react
according to engineering designs
v. Designed policy effects are recordable and calculable neutrally and
objectively as stock taking and auditing
c. Hence, policy studies and practices are comprehended as scientific and
engineering projects
2. Interpretative-political perspective in policy studies in education
a. Epistemological assumptions
i. Realities under study are socially and culturally constructed realities
rather than objectively and naturally preexisting realities
ii. Phenomena under study are embedded with socially and culturally
attributed or even imputed meanings and values
iii. Methodologically, policy studies are to understand the meanings and
valued embedded in policy environments and phenomena
b. Practical assumptions
i. Policy makings are political deliberations, negotiation, checks and
balances and building consensuses of different or even contradictory
interpretations of policy realities and phenomena
ii. Policy implementations are processes of (second round) negotiation,
persuasions, and team-building in which policy mandates are specified
and localized into social, political and cultural environments which
policy measures are supposed to take holds and materialized
iii. Responses and reactions of policy environments are not automatic but
are open to negotiations, resistances or even deliberately alterations
iv. Policy evaluations are yet another round of interpretations and
negotiations on the effectiveness, benefits, and pitfalls of the policy
measures concerned
c. Hence, policy studies and practices are political projects of negotiations,
checks and balances, compromises and trade-offs
W.K.Tsang
HK Education Policy & Practice
3. Discursive-critical perspective in policy studies in education
1. Epistemological assumptions
a. Realities under study are socially and culturally constructed realities
hypostatized, frozen and probably distorted by given historical, social
and political institutions
b. Phenomena under study are assumed to be power-hypostatized and
institution-biased in favor and/or against different groupings in given
historical and social contexts
c. Methodologically, policy studies are to reveal and critique the systemic
distortions and biases hypostatized and legitimatized in given policy
phenomena
2. Practical assumptions
a. Policy makings are processes of finding and constituting resolutions to
rectify the systemic distortions and biases embedded in given policy
realities
b. Policy implementations are coercive processes of redistributions of
resources and powers in favor of the “suppressed” groups and against
the “suppressing groups” existing in particular policy phenomena
3. Hence, policy studies and practices are critical projects of critiques and
rectifications of systemic distortions and biases in given policy realities
W.K.Tsang
HK Education Policy & Practice