Critical Policy Analysis in Education

Order Description
The performance task here is intended to be authentic. The task is this: you are to write a report for the leadership of your school that provides an overview of how a specific policy being adopted by government reflects or counters global policy directions, and that makes recommendations for how your school should respond to those policy directions.
For the purposes of this assignment, please take ‘global policy directions’ to mean what Pasi Sahlberg’s has referred to as the “global education reform movement (GERM)”. A good overview of this can be found in his TED talk at GERM that kills schools: Pasi Sahlberg at … – YouTube. These policies have been adopted over the last decade or so in most of the English speaking advanced economy nations (UK, USA, Canada, Australia). They are also highly favoured by multi-lateral organisations such as the OECD and the World Bank, so it is likely that they have either been adopted or considered wherever you are from. This set of policies includes:
Standardisation of education and particularly curriculum (in Australia we have adopted a national curriculum a few years ago).
A focus on core subjects, in particular literacy, numeracy, and sometimes science.
An emphasis on low risk teaching strategies. This may often be presented as ‘evidence-based’.
The adoption of corporate management models.
The adoption of test-based accountability. In higher education student evaluations are often substituted as a form of accountability.
In constructing your report you may wish to focus on an actual policy documents that implement aspects of this agenda in your professional context (highly recommended for most students), or you may wish to engage a wider range of policy texts from Australia and organizations such as the OECD to provide examples of policy approaches that may be adopted in your professional setting.
Please note that in this task I am not looking for you to agree with the positions I take, rather I am looking for you to “unpack” the assumptions on which a policy is based, to consider alternative positions, to analyze how different people are affected by the different options, and to reach your own conclusions. Assignments that do these things will receive higher grades than assignments that simply repeat my positions.
Your report is to include the following sections. The word count for each section is provided as a guide and I would expect you to come in within 10% either way of this guide. Your final report must not exceed a total of 4000 words.

1 An overview of how the policy reforms have or will play out in the local, systemic, sectorial, national and global context of your institution. i.e. how is this policy theme understood in the context of your institution? You should use and cite the education policy literature in providing this overview, not just say what you think. (500 words)
2 Identify the philosophical understanding of the purpose of education evident in the policy reforms. You should use examples from a specific policy texts to support your argument. (500 words)
3 Identify the effects of dominant policy influences on the proposed reforms and provide an overview of both the perceived advantages and criticisms of the influence/s you have identified. In this section you will again draw upon the policy evaluation literature with better work demonstrating an understanding beyond the set readings (1000 words)
4 Evaluate the research evidence used in your chosen policy texts that implement some or all of the reforms listed above. A number of these texts are provided in the readings of this unit. Identify any positions in the policy texts that appear ‘data proof’. (500 words)
5 Make recommendations about how your institution should respond to the policy agenda. Remember that responding to policy is never as simple as ‘implementation’. You may wish to support a particular approach and need to identify the policy instruments you will use, or you may wish to resist a policy approach and will need to identify the tactics available to you to do so. (1500 words)

Marking Criteria:
1 Identifies policy influences and perspectives with evidence (10%)
2 Develops critical policy analysis that draws on the literature to apply key concepts to policy theme under study (10%)
3 Applies key concepts to local, sectoral, and global professional context (10%)
4 Identifies research evidence base and implications for practic (20%)
5 Justifies a response to policy options (20%)
6 Overall organisation and communication (30%)

Critical Policy Analysis in Education

Order Description
Section 1– Policy Influences (1000 words)
In this section you are to explain the background of the policy text in relation to broader policy themes. A number of such policy themes are outlined as case studies. Using the most relevant of those case studies as a starting point, you need to explain the social, political and/or economic issues that are driving the policy response represented in the texts you are analysing.

In this section you are primarily providing background. You are then you are explaining succinctly what responses are suggested in your policy text. Logic models may assist you with this second step and you are free to develop a table to consider your logic models.

A reader (including a marker) would be expecting to see appropriate citation and referencing to support the claims you make in this section.
Section 2 – Evaluate the Evidence Used (500 words)
This section is again focussed directly on the texts you are using. Policy is often portrayed as a rational response to evidence, but in this unit you have learned of the definition of policy as the ‘authoritative allocation of values’.

In this section I am looking for you to critically assess the evidence upon which policy proposals are based. Is the evidence valid and reliable? Is there any reason to suspect bias in the evidence used (for example, who wrote it and do they have an agenda of their own)? Is the link from the evidence to the policy recommendations logical?

A really strong answer to this section will also identify and summarise any alternative evidence sources on the policy theme that have been ignored in your policy text.
Section 3 – Recommendations (1500 words)
In this section you are to make recommendations to your institution (it board or its executive) on how to respond to the policy texts.

Your recommendation may be to support the policy. If so you should provide practical suggestions on the policy instruments that could be used in your institution to enact the policy. In marking, I will be looking for your knowledge of policy instruments.

Your recommendation may be to resist the policy and to ‘play your policy hand’. If so, you should outline practical methods of resistance. In marking, I will be looking for your knowledge of how to resist policy proposals.

References
Please provide full reference list in APA format.
Marking Criteria –
1 Applies key concepts to local, sectorial, and global professional context
2 Identifies research evidence base and implications for practice
3 Overall organization and communication
4 Critically analyses an education policy in terms of context and process, research evidence base and implications for professional practice
5 Leads professional activities that address the contemporary challenges of policy reform in education

The text that you should be analyzing is National Education policy of Bhutan.