Faculty of Education, CUHK
Qualitative Method in Education Research
Lecture 5
Text and Discourse Analyses of Curriculum and Policy Texts
A. Education Policy as Text and as Discourse
Stephen J. Ball in explicating his approach to policy studies in education specifies 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)
B. Paul Ricoeur's Thesis of Text and Hermeneutic Functions
1. What is hermeneutics: Paul Ricoeur specifies that
“hermeneutics is the theory of the operations of understanding in the relation to the inte rpretation of texts.”
(Ricoeur, 1991, p.53)
2. What is a text? a.
“A text is any discourse (i.e. speech act) fixed in writing.” (Ricoeur, 1991, p.
106) b. Fixation enables the speech act to be conserved, i.e. durability of text c. A text
“divides the act of writing and the act of reading into two sides, between which there is no communication. … The text thus produces a double eclipse of the reader and the writer.
” (Ricoeur, 1991, p.107)
3. Distanciations in the text: As a fixation of speech act, text enable a particular kind of human communication — "it is communication in and through distance."
(Ricoeur, 1991, p.76) As the result, it poses a series of unique problems in hermeneutic research. Ricoeur formulates these problems into five distanciations. a. Text as discourse and the distanciation of discourse from meaning: i. Distinction between language and discourse: Ferdinand Saussure distinguishes language (as system of codes) and speech (as act of actual use and realization of a particular language system). As discourse is defined as speech act or event of language in use, it has therefore constituted the primary distanciation that a hermeneutic researcher has to bridge. ii. This primary distanciation is the separation between the speech act (i.e. discourse) and the meaning to be expressed. (Ricoueur, 1991, p. 77) iii. Articulation of meaning in language event is
“the core of the whole hermeneutic problem.
” (Ricoeur, 1991, p.78) b. Text as work and the distanciation of discourse from author's intention i. As it is understood as
“work”, text implies that behind the work there is an author, who consciously and deliberately objectifies her intention by undertaking a laborious effort of creation. Accordingly, the second distanciation the hermeneutic researchers have to overcome is between the text and author
’s intention. ii. "Author says more than speaker: the author is the artisan of work of language. But the category of author is equally a category of interpretation, in the sense that it is contemporaneous with the meaning of the work as a whole. The singular configuration of the work and the singular configuration of the author are strictly correlative. Man individuates himself in producing
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individual works. The signature is the mark of this relation." (Ricoeur, 1991, p. 82) iii. “Hermeneutics remains the art of discerning the discourse in the work; but this discourse is only given in and through the structures of the work. Thus interpretation is the reply to the fundamental distanciation constituted by the objectification of man in work of discourse, an objectification comparable to that expressed in the products of his labour and his art.
” (Ricoeur, 1991,
P.83) c. Distanciation of the context of writing from that of reading i. As fixation of discourse, a text practical relax both the author and the receiver from temporal and spatial bondage and to provide autonomy to both end of a discourse. ii. The text has practically 'decontextualizsed ’ itself from the context of writing and as the result, it also enable itself to be ‘recontextualised’ in whatever situations in which act of reading take place.
” (Ricoeur, 1991, p.83) iii. This decontextualization between the acts of writing and that of readings introduce yet aspect of distanciation to hermeneutic research. d. Distanciation of the text from the world of text i. The world of the text refers to reality which have been signified or proposed in the text. This capacity of signifying and referring to the world endowed in text and discourse in fact "distinguishes discourse from language, the latter has no relation with reality, its words returning to other words in the endless circle of the dictionary. Only discourse, we shall say, intends things, applies itself t o reality, expresses the world.” (Ricoeur, 1991, p.85) ii. This distanciation of the text from the world of text has been stipulated by
Ricoeur as the most fundamental hermeneutical problem. He suggests that
"to interpret is to explicate the type of being-in-the world (life-world) unfolded in front of the text.” (Ricoeur, 1991, p.86) e. Self-understanding in front of the work a. The act of appropriation, which is a well known problem in traditional hermeneutics, refers to the application of ‘the world of the work’ to the present situation of the reader. b. To understand is to understand oneself in front of the text. It is not a question of imposing upon the text our finite capacity of understanding, but of exposing ourselves to the text and receiving from it an enlarged self c. “As a reader, I find myself only by losing myself. Reading introduces me into the imaginative variations of the ego. The metamorphosis of the world in play is also the playful metamorphosis of the ego. If that is true, then the concept of
“appropriation” …demands an internal critique. …A critique of the illusions of the subject, in a Marxist and Freudian manner, therefore can and must be incorporate into self-understanding. … The critique of ideology is the necessary detour which self-understanding must take, if the latter is to be formed by the matter of the text and not the prejudices of the reader.
”
(Ricoeur, 1991, p.87-88)
C. Concepts of Textuality and Intertextuality: Norman Fairclough ’s Conception
1. Conception of textuality: By textuality, it refers to “the texture of the texts, their form and organization.
” (1995, p. 4)
2. The significance of textuality analysis: Fairclough underlines that “My contention is hat no analysis of text content and meaning can be satisfactory which fails to
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attend to what one might call the content of texture (or the content of its form).
”
(1995, p.5) Therefore, by introducing the concept of textuality into hermeneutic study, text analysis can then go beyond studying texts in linguistic forms (written or spoken) and explore texts, which take on multi-semiotic forms.
3. The concept of multi-semiotic textuality is especially significant in the age of mass communication and then the information age a. In the mass-communication age, television is the exemplar text of multi-semiotic form. b. In the information age, literal texts have been further replaced by digital-imagery texts through computer-mediated-communication. c. By means of internet typographic text has been replaced by hypertext and hyperlink.
4. Forms of textuality: From the findings of textuality analyses, a number of significant forms of textuality can be induced. a. Absence: The first and foremost textuality in a particular text is what has not been said and what has been absent in the text. Hence, to analyze and reveal what is missing in the text, one can reveal the ideological stance represented in the text and the literal distortion that the text attempts to constitute. b. Frame: It refers to
“the definition of situation” specified in a particular text. More specifically, it implies “that when individuals attend to any current situation, they face the question: ‘What is going on here?’ Whether asked explicitly, as in times of confusion and doubt, or tacitly, during occasions of usual certitude, the question is put and the answer to it is presumed by the way the individual then proceeds to get on with the affairs at hand.
” (Goffman,1974; Quoted in Law &
Rein, p. 175) In Fairclough
’s connotation, it refers to the “implicature” and
“presupposition” found in a text. (Fairclough, 1995, p. 5) c. Genre: It refers to “distinctions within convention …between text types.”
(Fairclough, 1995, p. 13) More specifically, Fairclough defines “genre as socially ratified way of using language in connection with a particular type of social activities, ” (Fairclough, 1997, p. 14) d. Rhetoric: It refers to “the art of using language so as to persuade or influence others.
” (Edwards et al. 2004, p.3) Hence, Rhetorical analysis involves the study of the ways in which we attempt to persuade or influence in our discursive, textual and gestural practices. (Edwards et al., 2004, p.13) Hence,
“part of the job of the rhetoric analyst is to determine how constructions of ‘the real ’ are made persuasive” (Simon, 1990; quoted in Edwards et al., 2004, p.
13) e. Metaphor: “The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.
” (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; quoted in
Edwards, 2004, p.25) In metaphoric analysis, it is claimed that “human understanding is a petaphoric process; the mind grasps an unfamiliar idea only by comparison to or in terms of something already known. Thus the metaphoric language in a text presents a particular view of reality by structuring the understanding of one idea in terms of something previously understood.
” (Gill
& Whedbee, 1997, p.173)
5. Intertextuality: It refers to the connections that a particular text is related to other configurations of texts. These configurations may be of “vertical” and/or
“horizontal” dimensions. By analysis of vertical intertextuality, it refers to “the insertion history into a text and of this text into history.
” (Fairclough, 1992, p. 102)
In other words, to locate the text in question in historical context. By analysis of the
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horizontal intertextualioty, it means by locating a text in its current socio-cultural context and or its literal configuration.
D. Text Analysis and Studies of Policy & Curriculum Texts in Education
1. Policy and curriculum texts in education as patchwork of interests: Policy texts are usually in politicking process by decision-making committees. As a result, there is practically no authorship to be identified in the texts. Furthermore, they are in essence product of political negotiation, power bargaining and compromising among stake-holders.
2. Multi-lateral hermeneutic study of policy text in education (Stephen J. Ball)
The multi-lateral process of writing (encoding) and reading (decoding) of policy texts (Ball, 1992) a. Multiple authors in the production processes of policy texts b. Multiple readers in the processes formulation and implementation of policy texts c. Notions writerly and readerly texts: i. The writerliness of policy texts refers to the flexibility built in policy texts which
“invite the reader to ‘join-in’, to ‘co-operate’ and co-author’. (Ball,
1992, p. 11) In other words, it provides readers rooms to interpret or even re-write the policy texts. ii. The readerliness of policy text refers to the rigidity built in policy texts which provide
“minimum of opportunity for creative interpretation by the reader(s).
” (Ball, 1992, p.11) d. Reciprocating, bargaining and interacting relationship between writers and readers of policy texts
3. In research of the world of texts in policy and curriculum studies
4. Readers ’ self-understanding in front of the texts
5. Textuality analysis and genre of policy and/or curriculum texts a. By definition education policy text can be categorized as argumentative and/or persuasive genre of textuality analysis. b. According to Richard Edwards and his associates persuasive text may take the following forms i. Deliberative genre: It refers to the texture of the education policy text, which “associate with policy and its future orientated and speculative.”
(Edwards et al., 2004, p.19) For example, in documents relating to recent education reform, they commonly refer to the future of global-informational economy and network society and how education reform should prepare students to fit into new species of flexible and workers and/or networkers. ii. Forensic genre: It refers to the texture of the policy text policy which
“focuses on past events and attempt to provide an account that is taken to be true.
” (ibid) For example, the rhetoric of presenting data of declining standards in comparative educational research and statistics of falling competitiveness of national economy in global market can be construed as a kind of forensic genre. iii. Epideictic genre: It refers to the texture of the policy text, which focuses on the contemporary. However, in epideictic genre one can usually find “the notion of ‘naming and shaming’, publicly denouncing organizations and individuals who fail to meet the quality standards and inspection criteria to which they are subject.
” (ibid) For example, blaming on teachers, naming
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negative value-added schools, and shaming failing schools.
6. Textuality analysis and rhortics of policy text a. In the case of education policy text, rhetoric analysis aims to explore and reveal “hidden rhetoric aspect of educational discourse” found in policy text
(Edwards et al., 2004, p. 9) b. Constituents of rhetoric performance: It has been identified by analysts of rhetoric that there are several essential constituents for a rhetoric performance, i.e. to make rhetoric persuasive. They are i. Context: Rhetoric by definition is pragmatic in nature, i.e. it
“responds to or interacts with societal issues or problems, and it produces some action upon or change in the world.
” (Gill & Whedbee, 1997, p.161). Therefore, in order to be comprehended and/or critically analyzed the rhetoric in a policy text, it must be set against the context (temporal, socio-cultural and/or pragmatic contexts), in which it is derived.
One of the most often used contextual rhetoric in recent education-reform policy text is globalization, the coming of the knowledge economy, the advent of the information age, etc. ii. Exigence: It refers to the way the issue and/or problem to be addressed in the rhetoric of a policy text are defined and formulated. For example, in recent education reforms, the most commonly used exigencies are either the decline of standards of students and school leavers or the threat of losing national competitiveness in global economic competitions. iii. Audience: It signifies the actual or figurative audience, whom the rhetoric of a policy text is supposed to address or appeal to. For example, in recent education-reform documents, the audiences to be addressed are usually employers and/or parents rather than teachers and education professions.
It indicates a sense of distrustfulness to professionals, who usually been depicted as the sourced of falling standard in education and/or falling competitiveness in national economy. Even within the audience of parents, they have been defined as consumers striving for individual gains rather than as citizens constituting common will and good for the society as a whole. iv. Rhetor credibility: It indicates the authorities of the speakers or writers of the texts, and/or the authorities that the rhetoric of a policy documents try to appealed to. For example, appeal to concepts as well as authorities of neo-liberal economists, such as Milton Friedman, in policy texts of education reform of liberalization is one of the most common practices in recent education reforms. v. Metaphor:
“The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.
” (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; quoted in Edwards, 2004, p.25) In metaphoric analysis, it is claimed that “human understanding is a petaphoric process; the mind grasps an unfamiliar idea only by comparison to or in terms of something already known. Thus the metaphoric language in a text presents a particular view of reality by structuring the understanding of one idea in terms of something previously understood.
” (Gill & Whedbee, 1997, p.173)
For example, in the rhetoric of the neo-liberalism the education system is metaphorically prescribed as a market mechanism, a school as a input-output factory, students as materials to be processed and added on value, parents as choosing consumers, school principals as CEO, etc.
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vi. Iconicity: “Iconicity functions in a way that is similar to metaphor, iconicity
‘rests on the intuitive recognition of similarities one field of reference (the form of language) and another.
’” (Gill & Whedbee, 1997, p.174) For example, HK school like to use celebrity graduates as rhetoric to indicate the quality of the school.
E. Meanings of Discourse
1. Locating the level of study for policy discourse a. The concept of discourse has become popular in social sciences in past decades. As the concept being used by various disciplines in social sciences, the meanings of the concept have become heterogeneous if not chaotic. b. At conversation level, the concept of discourse can refers to speech act, language use, or parole. For example in classroom discourse study, discourse is taken as speech act and speech exchange between teachers and students in the classroom context. c. At institution level, discourse can refers to cognitive, regulative and normative rules governing the circulation and practice of ideas, concepts, categories and representations of social meanings within a social institutional domain.
For examples, in medical institution, discourse may take the form of a certification issued by a doctor to a patient indicating the health condition of the latter and the whole institutional configuration making this certification effective; and in educational institution, discourse may take the form of a certificate issued by government to a student certifying passing of an examination of the latter and the whole institutional configuration making this certification effective. d. At socio-cultural system level, discourse can refers to the dominance or hegemony governing the circulation and/or practice of ideas, concepts, categories and representations of social meanings in a society. For example, the discourses of neo-liberal capitalism or socialism in economy system; discourse of liberal democracy or proletarian dictatorship in political system; etc.
2. The conception of discourse in policy studies in education a. Frank Fischer defines “Discourse …is an ensemble of ideas and concepts that give social meaning to social and physical relations.
” (2003, p. 90) b. David Howarth defines Discourse refers
“to historically specific systems of meaning which form the identities of subjects and objects.
” (2002, quoted in
Fischer, 2003, p. 73 c. Maarten Hajer defines discourse as “a specific ensemble of ideas, concepts, and categories that are produced, reproduced, and transformed to give meaning to physical and social relations.
” (1995, quoted in Fischer, 2003, p.
73 d. Taken together these conceptions of discourse, policy discourse can then be characterized as a historically specific ensemble of ideas, concepts and categories which gives meaning to physical and social relations and forms identities of subjects and objects within a particular policy domain and/or around a specific policy issue. For example, the neo-liberalism and/or in
New-Right in public policy; the “Washington consensus” in fiscal policy; the welfare state or the workfare state in welfare policy; comprehensive- egalitarianism or quasi-market discourse in education policy.
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3. Michel Foucault's conception of discourse a.
Statement “The statement is not the same kind of unit as the sentence, the proposition, or the speech act…The statements is not …a structure (i.e. a group of relations between variable elements...).; it is a function of existence that properly belong to signs and on the basis of which one may then decide, through analysis or intuition, whether or not they ‘make sense’, according to what rule they follow one another or are juxtaposed, of what they are the sign, and what sort of act is carried out by their formulation (oral or written).”
(Foucault, 1972, p. 86-87) b. A discourse “is the totality of all effectiveness statements (whether spoken or written). ... Description of discourse is in opposition to the history of thought.
There…a system of thought can be reconstituted only on the basis of a definite discursive totality. …The analysis of thought is always allegorical in relation to the discourse that it employs. Its question is unfailingly: what is being said in what was said? …what is this specific existence that emerges from what is said and nowhere else?” (Foucault, 1972, p. 27-28)
F. Michel Foucault's Theory of Formation of Discourse
1. The Formation of Object
a. Mapping the surface of the emergence of the object
b. Describing the authorities of delimitation
c. Analyzing the grids of specification
2. The Formation of Enunciative Modality
a. Identifying who is speaking, who is accorded the right to use this sort of language, who is qualified to do so.
b. Describing the institutional sites from which the discourse is made and form which the discourse derives its legitimate source and point of application
c. Analyzing the position of the subject, in which s/he occupies in relation to the various domains and groups of objects
3. The Formation of Concepts: the formation of the organization of the field of statements where they appeared and circulated
a. Identifying the forms of succession, e.g.
i. Orderings of enunicative series
ii. Types of dependence of the statement
iii. Rhetorical schemata according to which groups of statements may be combined
b. Identifying the forms of coexitence
i. Field of presence
ii. Field of concomitance
III. Field of memory
c. Identifying the procedures of intervention that may be legitimately applied to statements, e.g. technique of rewriting , method of transcribing, mode of translating, means of transfering, method of systematizing
4. The Formation of Strategies or theoretical and thematic choice
a. Determining the points of diffraction of discourse
i. Point of incompatibility
ii. Point of equivalence
iii. Point of systematization
b. Analyzing the economy of the discursive constellation
c. Analyzing the other authority, e.g. functional to fields of non-discursive
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practice, observing the rules and processes of appropriation of discourse
G. Discourse of Global Education Reform of NeoLiberalism
1. Constitution of discursive object a. Mediocre students b. Uncompetitive labor c. Untrustworthy and incompetent teachers d. Failing schools e. A nation at risk
2. Analysis of the Enunciative Modality in HKSAR education reform a. Speakers and their positions and/authority to speak: Predominantly speakers from business sectors and multi-national corporation b. Languages used in discourse: Rhetoric from business sectors, benchmarking, value for money, value-added, quality assurance, total quality control, etc. c. The institutional sites within which the discourse takes place: Education discourse from the outside in
3. Understanding the formation of discursive concept in academic discourse: a. The underlying principle of Lifelong learning for economic rationalism b. The operational mechanism of quasi-market c. The public administrative concept of new managerialism
4. Analysis of the discursive strategies of global education reform of neoliberalism a. Points of equivalence and systematization: Complementary discourses of quasi-market mechanism of education, public sector reform, new-managerialism, global-information economy, knowledge society, etc. b. Points of incompatibility: Marginalization the idea of egalitarianism, caring and trustful community, welfare state, professionalization of teachers, … c. Economy of discursive constellation of public policy.
Additional References
Law, David and Martin Rein (2003). “Reframing Practice.” Pp.172-206. Deliberative
Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society , edited by M.A.
Hajer and H. Wagenaar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Edwards, Richard, et al. (2004) Rhetoric and Educational Discourse: Persuasive Texts?
London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Gill, Ann M. and Karen Whedbee (1997) "Rhetoric." Pp. 157-184. In T. van Dijk (Ed.)
Discourse as Structure and Process.. London: Sage Publication.
Fischer, Frank. (2003). Reframing Public Policy: Discursive Politics and Deliberative
Practices . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ch. 1 (Making Social Science Relevant:
Policy Inquiry in Critical Perspective)
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