EDM 6209
Policy Studies in Education
Topic 5
Perspectives in Policy Studies:
Discursive- Critical Perspective
Argumentative and Persuasive Turns
in Policy Studies
Public policy as argumentative and persuasive
practice
 Redefining the nature of public policy: “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)
Argumentative and Linguistic
Turns in Policy Studies
Public policy as linguistic and argumentative
practice (cont’d)
 Redefining the role of the policy analysts: “In a system
of government by discussion, analysis - even
professional analysis - has less to do with formal
techniques of problem solving than with process of
argument. The job of analysts consists in large part of
producing evidence and arguments to be used in the
course of public debate. Its crucial argumentative
aspect is what distinguishes policy analysis from the
academic social science on the one hand, and from
problem-solving methodologies such as operations
research on the other. …
Argumentative and Linguistic
Turns in Policy Studies
Public policy as linguistic and argumentative
practice (cont’d)
 … They must persuade if they are to be taken seriously
in the forums of public deliberation. Thus, analysts, like
lawyers, politicians, and others who make a
fundamental use of language, will always be involved in
all the technical problems of language, including
rhetorical problems. (Majone, 1989, p. 7)
Argumentative and Linguistic
Turns in Policy Studies
Public policy as practice of persuasion
 Redefining the nature of public policy: “All our talk of
‘making’ public policy, of ‘choosing’ and ‘deciding’, loses
track of the home truth … that politics and policy making
is mostly a matter of persuasion. Decide, choose,
legislate as they will, policy makers must carry people
with them, if their determinations are to have the full
force of policy. …To make policy in a way that makes it
stick, policy makers cannot merely issue edicts. They
need to persuade the people who must follow their edicts
if those are to become general public practice.” (Goodin
et al., 2006, p. 5)
Argumentative and Linguistic
Turns in Policy Studies
Public policy as practice of persuasion
 Redefining the core of the discipline: “Not only is
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’.” (ibid)
Discursive Perspective in
Policy Studies
Locating the levels of study for policy discourse
 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.
 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.
Discursive Perspective in
Policy Studies
 Locating the levels of study for policy discourse
 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.
Discursive Perspective in
Policy Studies
Locating the levels of study for policy discourse
 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.
Discursive Perspective in
Policy Studies
The conception of discourse in public policy
 Frank Fischer defines “Discourse …is an ensemble of
ideas and concepts that give social meaning to social
and physical relations.” (2003, p. 90)
 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)
 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)
Discursive Perspective in
Policy Studies
The conception of discourse in public policy
 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 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.
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
1926-1984
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Conception of Statement
 The statement – the constituent unit of a discourse
“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)
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Conception of Statement
 Accordingly policy statement can then be defined as a
specification or even a prescription (in oral or written
format) circulating in a particular public policy domain.
It defines the “conditions of existence” the objects in
the specific public policy domain are qualified to obtain.
For examples:
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
 For examples:
 Liberal studies is one of the four core subjects in New Senior
Secondary Curriculum
 Profit-making kindergartens are not eligible to participate in
educational-voucher scheme
 Form-3 students in school X are below the standard of
Territory-wide System Assessment in English-language
 Student X is a EMI-capable student in SSPA, school Y is a
EMI school, teacher Z is a EMI-capable teacher
 Student A is a Special-Educational-Needs (SEN) student
 Primary school M has adopted small-class-size teaching
 School N is a “Quality” school in ESR scheme
 School Q is not managed by Incorporated Management
Committee (IMC)
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Conception of discourse
 A discourse “is the totality of all effective 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)
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Conception of discourse
 “We can now give a full meaning to the definition of
‘discourse’. …We shall call discourse a group of
statements in so far as they belong to the same
discursive formation. …It is made up of a limited
number of statements for which a group of conditions
of existence can be defined.” (p. 117)
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Conception of discourse
 Hence, a policy discourse is a totality and unity of
effective policy statements within a public policy
domain in specific historical, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts. For example, the quasi-market
discourse on education reforms implemented by
capitalist states in developed countries in the last
decade of the 20th century can be construed as a
totality of effective policy statements which stipulate
the underlying principles as well as the operational
mechanism of the schooling system in these countries.
Standardization, Normalization, Commodification & Reification
TTRA,
TOC,
SVAIS
EMILanguage
SurveillanceTeacher
Capable Proficiency Competence
Teachers Asessment Framework
evaluationism
EMICapable
SVAIS Students
Principal
Professional
Development
Market signals
SSPA
Discretionary
Places
ParentocracyParental
DSS
Demand
Choice
consumerism
SSE
Marketization
QAI
Supply
ERS
DisciplineSBM
managerialism
Audited
Schools
S-B Ordinance
EMI Schools
Pre-school Voucher System
Standardization & Dismantliztion
Fragmentation & Stratification
Medium of Exchange
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Foucault’s Theory of Discursive Formation
Foucault differentiates the formation of a
discourse into four interrelated parts.
 The Formation of Object:
Mapping the surface of the emergence of the object
Describing the authorities of delimitation
Analyzing the grids of specification
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Foucault’s Theory of Discursive Formation
 The Formation of Enunciative Modality
Identifying who is speaking, who is accorded the right to
use this sort of language, who is qualified to do so.
Describing the institutional sites from which the
discourse is made and form which the discourse derives
its legitimate source and point of application
Analyzing the position of the subject, in which s/he
occupies in relation to the various domains and groups of
objects
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Foucault’s Theory of Discursive Formation
 The Formation of Concepts: the formation of the
organization of the field of statements where they
appeared and circulated
Identifying the forms of succession, e.g.
• Orderings of enunciative series
• Types of dependence of the statement
• Rhetorical schemata according to which groups of
statements may be combined
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Foucault’s Theory of Discursive Formation
 The Formation of Concepts: the formation of the
organization of the field of statements where they
appeared and circulated
 Identifying the forms of coexistence
• Field of presence
• Field of concomitance
• Field of memory
 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 transferring, method of systematizing
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Foucault’s Theory of Discursive Formation
 The Formation of Strategies or theoretical and
thematic choice
 Determining the points of diffraction of discourse
• Point of incompatibility
• Point of equivalence
• Point of systematization
 Analyzing the economy of the discursive constellation
 Analyzing the other authority, e.g. functional to fields of
non-discursive practice, observing the rules and
processes of appropriation of discourse
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
Foucault’s Theory of Power/Knowledge and
Discourse
 The relation between discourse and power:
“Discourse can be both an instrument and an
effect of power… Discourse transmits and
produces power; it reinforces it.” (Foucault, 1978,
101, my italic)
 The concept of power/knowledge
 “It is in discourse that power and knowledge are joined
together” (Foucault, 1978, p. 100) and constitute what
Foucault conceptualized the power/knowledge.
Michel Foucault’s Theory of
Discourse
The concept of power/knowledge
“We should admit … that power and knowledge directly imply
one another; that there is no power relation without the
correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any
knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same
time power relations. These power/knowledge relations are to be
analyzed, therefore, not on the basis of a subject of knowledge
who is or is not free in relation to the power system, but, on the
contrary, the subject who knows, the objects to be known and
the modalities of knowledge must be regarded as so many
effects of these fundamental implications of power/knowledge
and their historical transformations. In short, it is not the
activities of the subject of knowledge that produces a corpus of
knowledge, useful or resistant to power, but power/knowledge,
the processes and struggles that traverse it and of which it is
made up, that determines the forms and possible domains of
knowledge.” (Foucault, 1977, p. 28)
Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis
Assumptions of Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA): As a research approach, CDA has
assigned numbers of particular features to the
understanding of discourse
 Discourse as social practice: Discourse is no
longer construed as individual language use in
forms of text or talk, but as social practices which
implies
 Representation and/or expression of meaning and value
 Acts upon the world
 Acts upon social relations between human beings
Critical Discourse Analysis
Assumptions of CDA
 Constitutive nature of discourse: Construed as
social practice, discourse therefore takes on a
constitutive nature. In other words, human beings
use discourse to construct the worlds or realities
around them. This constitutive nature of discourse
may manifest in at least three aspects
 Ideational construction: “Discourse contributes to the
construction of system of knowledge and belief.”
(Fairclough, 1992, p. 64) For example, discourse of
science contributes to the construction of the material
world around us so are discourse of myths or religion.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Assumptions of CDA
 Constitutive nature of discourse:
 Relational construction: “Discourse help construct social
relationship between people.” (ibid) For example, liberaldemocratic discourse derived from the Enlightenment
contributes to the constitution of the political realities of
modern societies.
 Identity construction: Discourse contributes to the
construction of social subjects, self and social identity.
For example, the identity of citizenship is constructed
through the liberal-democratic discourse in the past three
centuries in human societies.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Assumptions of CDA
 Dialectic relationship between discourse and the social
structure
“It is important that the relationship between discourse
and social structure should be seen dialectically if we
are to avoid the pitfalls of overemphasizing on the one
hand the social determination of discourse, and on the
other hand the construction of the social in discourse.”
(Fairclough, 1992, p. 65) In other words, the dialectic
perspective in the relation between discourse and social
structure takes both social determination and social
construction into to consideration and assumes them to
be in a interactive and mediating relation.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Assumptions of CDA
 Discourse is historical: CDA takes discourse as
concrete social practice in particular historical and
socio-cultural contexts. Hence, analysis of contexts,
where the discourse takes place, is an essential part
of CDA.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Assumptions of CDA
 Ideological effect of discourse: The core question
CDA attempts to explore is how discourse serves as
means to legitimatize and reproduce prevailing
relations of power in a society, i.e. constituting
ideological effects for forms of social dominations.
Hence, to wage critique on domination and the
social distortion and bias that it elicits is what
makes CDA “critical”.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework of
CDA
 Three-dimensional analytical framework of CDA
 Text analysis: This dimension of discourse analysis
includes
• Analyses of text
• Analysis of textuality
• Analysis of intertextuality
 Discourse analysis: It covers analysis of the process of
production, distribution and consumption of a discourse.
In other words, it basically correspond Foucault’s
conception of discursive formation.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Three-dimensional framework of CDA (cont’d)
 Three-dimensional analytical framework of CDA
 Ideology analysis: This aspect of discourse analysis aims to
reveal the ideological effect embedded and/or constituted in a
particular discursive practice. By ideological effect of a
discourse, it refers to effect of a discourse in legitimating and
reproducing prevailing inequalities in power relations and social
distortions and biases in social-cultural practice.
Furthermore, as an ideological effect of a discourse has achieved
the cognitive status of “taken for granted” or “common sense”
among participants of a discourse, then it has constituted, what
Gramsci conceptualizes, hegemony. Hegemony is “an
ideological complex” (Gramsci, 1971; quoted in Fairclough, 1992,
p. 92), which constitutes “leadership as well as domination
across the economic, political, cultural and ideological domains
of a society.” (Fairclough, 1992, p. 92)
Figure 1: Analytical Framework of Critical Discourse Analysis
DISCOURSE
Totality of all effective statements
Intertextuality
Formation of
Objects
Textuality as Textual of the text
Text as Fixation of discourse
Hermeneutics as Distanciation Bridging
Discourse
Meanings
Absence
Frame
Genre
Discourse
Author’s
Intentions
Rhetoric
Author’s
Context
Readers’
Context
Metaphor
Text
Being-There of
the text
World of Text
Being-There of
the text
Audience ―
Rhetor
Formation of
Enunciative
Modelity
Formation of
Concepts
Formation of
Strategies &
Thematic Choice
Iconicity
38
Critical Discourse Analysis
Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework of
CDA
 The mediating function of discursive practices between
textual practices and social-cultural practices.
“Critical discourse analysis is very much about making
connections between social and cultural structures and
processes on the one hand, and properties of text on the
other.” (Faieclough and Wodak, 1997, p. 277) Critical
discourse analysts has construed the dimension of
discursive practice as the mediator between the two.
They has characterized the connection to be mediating
in nature. In other words, the connection is neither direct
nor deterministic but in the form of dialectic and
interactive.
Policy Studies as Social Critiques
 Conception of social critique and critical social science
 According to Jurgen Habermas, a prominent figure in Critical
Theory in Germany, the primary concern of critical social
scientists and social critiques in general is to refute the
assumption of empirical-positivistic social researcher that social
regularities revealed in social researches are given facts
comparable to those natural facts discovered in natural science.
Accordingly, they must reflect on the legitimation foundation,
which the prevailing social regularities are built upon. More
specially, they have to go beyond the status quo and try hard to
reveal the possible "power-hypostatized" social relations and
"ideologically-frozen" social discourses at work. (1971, P. 310)
Policy Studies as Critiques
 Conception of critique and critical social science
 Applying these ideas to policy studies, critical policy studies can
then be construed as attempts to unmask the possible
 distorted social relations hypostatized in specific public policies,
which are bias in favor of the dominants and/or against the
dominated, and
 distorted social discourses frozen in particular policy arenas, that
ideologues of the advantageous have forged in order to mystify
and/or rationalize the prevailing biases.
 As a result, the objective of critical social science, including
critical policy studies, is to emancipate
 the disadvantageous and dominated from distorted and biased
social relations instituted in prevailing social arrangements;
 the articulations and voices of the disadvantageous and dominated,
which have been silenced in the ideologies forged by the
ideologues of the dominants.
Policy Studies as Critiques
 Aspects of criticality in policy studies
 Critique on policy issues and frames: Critical policy researchers
can set out to reflect on the way a policy issue is formulated and
framed by the dominant policy discourse of the state. And see if
there are any relational and ideological distortions embedded in
a particular formulation of policy issue.
 Critique on policy stances of specific parties: Critical policy
researchers can reflect on the possible relational distortion
embedded in the discursive process of a particular policy arena.
That is, they can assess the chances and capacities that
different interest parties possess in articulating their concerns
and in redressing their grievances. Furthermore, critical policy
studies can also reflect on the ideological distortions found in
the arguments formulated and proclaimed by different parties
concerned.
Policy Studies as Critiques
 Aspects of criticality in policy studies
 Critique on policy context: The third aspect of criticality in policy
studies is to reflect on the macro socio-historical context and/or
meso institutional context, form which a particular policy issue
is originated. More specifically, it can assess whether there is
any relational and ideological distortions embedded in these
context, which give rise to the policy issue at point.
 Critique on policy practice: The final aspect of criticality in
policy studies is to reflect on the possibilities of transformation
and emancipation that a policy practice can bring about in
rectifying the relational and ideological distortions embedded in
a policy phenomenon.
Discursive Analysis of Lifelong
Learning Education Reform in HKSAR
In search of discursive object of HKSAR
education reform
 In terms of policy document
“I am convinced that we need to take a very
careful look at the whole structure of our
education system. We need to decide how it
should develop into the next century.”
Policy Address of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR Mr. Tung Cheewah, October 8, 1997
Discursive Analysis of Lifelong
Learning Education Reform in HKSAR
In search of discursive object of HKSAR
education reform
 In terms of policy document
 In terms of temporal demarcation
 In terms of discursive theme: Lifelong learning?
“As
we head into the 21st century, rapid developments in
communication and IT are bringing the world ever closer together.
Hong Kong faces strong competition from neighbouring economies
in many areas, including trade, finance, transportation,
communication and tourism. …In the knowledge-based economy,
existing knowledge is being updated at an everfaster pace. Our
young people must be outward-looking, imbued with a spirit of
exploration, able to make the best use of IT, able to master different
kinds of knowledge, and willing to strive to improve through
continuous learning. To enhance our competitiveness, Hong Kong
has to shift to high value-added and technology-based production
and services. We need people who are creative, versatile,
knowledgeable and multi-talented. … In this competitive world, we
are concerned about whether our education system can enable
students constantly to strive for the pursuit of knowledge, whilst
enjoying the fun of learning in the process, and about whether our
students have the room to develop their potential, whilst bracing
themselves for the challenges and competition ahead.” (Education
Commission, 1999a, Pp.9-10)
The No 1 reform agenda is to construct
“The lifelong learning academic structure”
(Education Commission, 1999b, p. 19)
“The purpose of this report is to set out
the general directions for curriculum
development in Hong Kong for the next
10 years, to fulfill the version of enabling
students to attain all-round development
and life-long learning. (Curriculum
Development Council, 2001, p. i)
Discursive Analysis of Lifelong
Learning Education Reform in HKSAR
Analysis of the Enunciative Modality in HKSAR
education reform
 Speakers and the their positions and/authority to
speak
 Languages used in discourse
 The institutional sites within which the discourse
takes place
Discursive Analysis of Lifelong
Learning Education Reform in HKSAR
Understanding the discursive concept of
HKSAR education reform
 Understanding the formation of discursive concept
in academic discourse: Two versions of lifelong
long education reforms
 Lifelong learning education reform for economic
rationalism
 Lifelong learning education reform for social inclusion and
political empowerment
Discursive Analysis of Lifelong
Learning Education Reform in HKSAR
Analysis of the discursive strategies of HKSAR
education reform
 Points of equivalence and systematization: The
construction of the quasi-market mechanism
The Discursive Strategies of QuasiMarket Mechanism in HKSAR
Points of equivalence & systematization
 Constitution of medium of exchange: The
discursive practice of surveillance-evaluationism
 Constitution of effective supply: The discursive
practice of discipline-managerialism
 Constitution of effective demand: The discursive
practice of parentocracy-consumerism
The Discursive Strategies of QuasiMarket Mechanism in HKSAR
Constitution of surveillance-evaluationism
 TRA, TTRA, TOC and BCA
 MIGA, Angoff standard setting, pre-S1 HKAT, EMIcapable
 SVAIS
The Discursive Strategies of QuasiMarket Mechanism in HKSAR
Constitution of discipline-managerialism
 ECR#7: Qualilty School Education
 Performance Indicators
 Key Performance Measures
 QAI
 SSE and ESR
 Teacher Benchmarking Assessment and Teacher
Competencies Framework
 From SMI to Education (Amendment) Ordinance
2004
The Discursive Strategies of QuasiMarket Mechanism in HKSAR
Constitution of parentocracy-consumerism
 MOI Guidance for Secondary Schools
 School Profiles
 Reform of SSPA and POA
 Increase of Discretionary Places (DP) from 10% to 30%
 Increase parental choice (in the form of application for DP)
from one school to two
 Post-19997 reforms on DSS
Standardization, Normalization, Commodification & Reification
TTRA,
TOC,
SVAIS
EMILanguage
SurveillanceTeacher
Capable Proficiency Competence
Teachers Asessment Framework
evaluationism
EMICapable
SVAIS Students
Principal
Professional
Development
Market signals
SSPA
Discretionary
Places
ParentocracyParental
DSS
Demand
Choice
consumerism
SSE
Marketization
QAI
Supply
ERS
DisciplineSBM
managerialism
Audited
Schools
S-B Ordinance
EMI Schools
Pre-school Voucher System
Standardization & Dismantliztion
Fragmentation & Stratification
Medium of Exchange
Discursive Analysis of Lifelong
Learning Education Reform in HKSAR
Analysis of the discursive strategies of HKSAR
education reform
 Points of equivalence and systematization: The
construction of the quasi-market mechanism
 Points of incompatibility
 Economy of discursive constellation of public
policy of HKSAR Government
Discursive Analysis of Lifelong
Learning Education Reform in HKSAR
Analysis of the ideological and hegemonic
practice of the discourse of HKSAR education
reform
 Discursive domination / hegemony of market
system and bureaucratic- administrative system
over education system
 Distortions and bias against communicativecommunal discourse in education
 Distortion and bias against critical-emancipatory
discourse in education
 Suppression and bias against the discourse of the
education profession
5
Policy Substance Study:
Interpretive-Political Perspective
END