Abstract:
A review of education policy and practice indicates a paradox in policy
implementation. Policy outcomes most often differ significantly from intended
purposes and provisions enacted. This paper re-conceptualises this policy
phenomenon, drawing on the post-modernist conception of policy as both
‘text’ and ‘discourse’ as an approach for understanding and unmasking the
messiness and contested nature of education policy processes. The choice of
approach is based on three factors. First, the choice is grounded in its efficacy in
explicating and legitimatising the issues of power within the policy arena. Second,
the choice is based on the potential of the approach in integrating social and
political theories of discourse with more linguistically oriented approaches to the
study of policy. Third, the preference of approach follows from its potential to
draw on language as a resource for reading into and/or analysing complex social
issues.
