An investigation of the uses of evidence and research in the educational decision making of policy elites
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(Published version)
Date
2006
Authors
Galway, Gerald James John
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thesis
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Abstract
Unpredictable and sustained societal demand places education in Canada in a constant state of change. In a knowledge-based trans-national economy, education is seen as the engine that converts information and technology into global competitiveness and local prosperity. The most prominent effects of the economic rationalist ideology relate to a shift in the rhetoric from 'individual at risk' to 'nation at risk' and the notion that community survival is critically dependent on the effectiveness of education systems. In Canada's global-competitiveness education environment the 'performance' of the education system seems to have become a standard against which special interests and the public can measure the effectiveness of government in addressing public concerns relating to regional and national economic downturns, competitiveness and community/regional sustainability.
These new arrangements draw attention to education policy making as a high-stakes undertaking. Yet there are no agreed-upon perspectives about what policy makers consider to be valid evidence for policy development and questions continue to be raised about the extent to which government policy is grounded in research-based knowledge. I am a career senior bureaucrat and former educator in the Canadian education system and this is where I have situated my research. My study, undertaken within a social constructionist tradition of inquiry aims to define and understand the key evidences claimed by elites and perceived by policy advisors and education researchers to form the basis of policy decisions. The analysis presented here addresses these questions: (1) What are the policy roles and practices of ministers and senior bureaucrats? (2) What do they value as evidence to inform policy?, and; (3) To what extent is education research valued as 'authentic' policy evidence?
School/Discipline
Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences
Dissertation Note
Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2006.
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Copyright 2006 the author. This item has been reproduced by the University of South Australia here in good faith. Attempts to contact original copyright owner(s) are ongoing. We would be pleased to hear from copyright owner(s).
Description
xvii, 393 pages
ill.
ill.
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506 0#$fstar $2Unrestricted online access