Sue Winton

Rhetorical analysis in critical policy research

Rhetorical analysis, an approach to critical discourse analysis, is presented as a useful method for critical policy analysis and its effort to understand the role policies play in perpetuating inequality. A rhetorical analysis of Character Matters!, the character education policy of a school board in Ontario, Canada, provides an illustrative example of the method’s contributions to the field. I identify rhetorical appeals of Character Matters! texts that aim to persuade the policy’s audience to support a predominantly traditional approach to character education. I then present contributions of rhetorical analysis for critical policy research and possibilities of rhetorical analysis for democratizing policy processes. I conclude by considering possible implications for York Region if the rhetoric of Character Matters! successfully convinces its audience to support the traditional approach to character education it advocates.

The appeal(s) of character education in threatening times: caring and critical democratic responses

This article examines the resurgence in popularity of character education in the USA and Canada. It links this renewed interest to insecurities about academic achievement, economic competitiveness, civic engagement, personal safety, moral decline, and the loss of a common culture. Conceptualising policy as rhetoric, the article shows how character education policies in both countries use similar strategies to appeal to diverse audiences. The policies respond to desires for predictability and stability by claiming that traditional character education prepares students for the workforce, improves academic achievement, fosters active citizenship, creates safer schools, and teaches students universal values. The article concludes by proposing commitments to caring relationships and critical democratic education as socially just alternatives to traditional character education.

Preparing Politically Savvy Principals in Ontario, Canada.

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to argue that principal preparation programs should help candidates: recognize the political role of the school principal; develop political skills (including the ability to strategically appropriate policy); and understand that the political approach of the principal influences teaching, learning, relationships, governance, and reform efforts. In addition, the paper reports findings of the analysis of Ontarios Principal Qualification Program guidelines to determine if they require principal preparation programs to develop aspiring school leaders’ political skills.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews theoretical arguments and empirical studies from the fields of school micropolitics, business, educational leadership, and critical policy studies to establish five political skills principals require. The authors then conducted a content analysis of Ontarios Principal Qualification Program guidelines to determine if they require principal preparation programs to...

People for Education: a critical policy history

In this paper, we demonstrate how history informs how policy meanings are constructed and the rhetorical strategies used to convince others to accept these meanings. We have two goals: (a) to show how a group of non-governmental actors, People for Education, became part of Ontario, Canada’s policy discursive network; and (b) to demonstrate the utility of constructing cultural and microhistories in critical policy analysis. This article is important because it describes resistance from a critical perspective and offers a methodology for producing histories of struggles over meaning-making in educational politics.

Constructing bullying in Ontario, Canada: a critical policy analysis

As the prevalence and negative effects of bullying become widely known, people around the world seem desperate to solve the bullying “problem”. A sizeable body of research about many aspects of bullying and a plethora of anti-bullying programmes and policies now exist. This critical policy analysis asks: how does Ontario, Canada’s bullying policy support and/or undermine critical democracy; and how does it reflect, support and further the interests of neoliberalism and/or neoconservatism? Findings indicate that the policy constructs the problem of bullying as a problem of individuals and a “behaviour for learning” problem. The policy also prescribes standardised responses to bullying incidents. We explore ways in which these constructions are undemocratic and unjust. The findings are particularly concerning because bullying policies are often viewed as innocuous by practitioners. This paper offers more than just critique by providing suggestions for how research and policies can become more just and equitable and how bullying policy may be enacted to support critical democracy.

From zero tolerance to student success in Ontario, Canada

Since 2003, Ontario, Canada’s high school graduation rates have increased 13% while suspensions and expulsion rates have simultaneously decreased. This article examines relationships between the province’s safe school policy and Student Success/Learning to 18 (SS/L18), a policy designed to increase graduation rates. Analyses of teachers’ perceptions, policy texts, provincial data, and an external evaluation of SS/L18 suggest that efforts to increase graduation rates through SS/L18 may also be helping to reduce suspensions and expulsions—perhaps to a greater extent than recent changes to Ontario’s safe schools policy, including the elimination of zero tolerance and adoption of a progressive discipline approach.

School Improvement: A Case of Competing Priorities!.

Maple Leaf School is a large English elementary school in Ontario, Canada. Wanda Miller, the principal, has been at the school for 2 years. Upon arrival, she engaged the teachers in a collaborative exercise to determine their school goal (as required by the province). Character education was selected. The district insisted that the school adopt an academic goal instead. Wanda determined that character education would be the school’s primary goal and writing its secondary one. Since then, students’ behavior and the school’s climate have improved markedly, but test scores have declined. This case focuses on the tension between a locally identified, collaboratively determined school focus and conflicting district and provincial demands.

Character education, new media, and political spectacle

Ontario’s new Character Development Initiative is analyzed to determine whether it can be characterized as political spectacle. Examination of official policy texts, media reports, speeches, web pages, webcasts, and events at the Character Development Symposium suggests that the Initiative contains many elements of political spectacle; however, the policy has received little coverage in traditional media. Media coverage is considered as an essential component of political spectacles. In this case, media coverage is limited to digital media produced by the Ontario government itself. This raises questions about the implications of new media forms for the theory of political spectacle. I demonstrate that digital media offer new means for bringing political spectacles to citizens and enable governments to have greater control over their content. Since political spectacles facilitated by traditional media promote the status quo and make critical analysis of public policy difficult, government‐produced digital media might put democracy at even greater risk. Alternatively, government websites post texts that can be analyzed by citizens and used to promote democracy in education. I conclude that the strategic use of language and illusions of democracy, whether brought to citizens through digital or traditional media, are essential components of political spectacle.

Consulting, Mediating, Conducting, and Supporting: How Community-Based Organizations Engage With Research to Influence Policy

ABSTRACT Grounded in critical policy theories and democratic conceptions of research, case studies of three community-based organizations, one in Canada and two in the U.S., were analyzed to determine if and how the groups engaged with research in their efforts to influence education policy. The findings demonstrate that the community-based organizations consulted and mediated existing research, conducted original research, and supported others’ research efforts. Collectively, engaging research helped community-based organizations realize technical, political, and transformative goals. Furthermore, the groups’ research activities helped democratize policy processes by broadening policy discourses, challenging dominant policy narratives, encouraging local dialogue and actions, and engaging participants.

Engaging Families, Educators, and Communities as Educational Advocates

This special issue of Leadership and Policy in Schools expands knowledge about family–school–community engagement by exploring who is involved in education, in what ways, and for what purposes. While considerable research exists that examines how and why parents, community-based organizations (CBOs), universities, and unions engage with education, much of this of work focuses on how these groups can support school goals (Baquedano-López, Alexander, & Hernandez, 2013). Research on schools’ relationships with families, for example, often examines benefits and barriers to parent involvement and strategies for increasing parent involvement in schools and enhancing home–school relationships (e.g., Hands, 2013). Other research on the politics of parent involvement considers how class, race, language, and other social factors may perpetuate social inequalities (Pushor & Murphy, 2010). The advocacy work of parents with children with special needs in particular is documented (e.g., Bacon & Causton-Theoharis, 2013), as is the work of formal parent organizations at the local, state, and federal levels (e.g., Pharis, Bass, & Pate, 2005). Yet much of this research focuses on single-issue advocacy and fails to consider how parents interact with other advocacy groups. Interest in CBOs has emerged as these groups take on education reform as part of their community improvement efforts. This work studies how these groups attempt to influence formal decision-makers and challenge traditional power relationships between schools and marginalized parents and community members (e.g., McLaughlin, Scott, Deschenes, Hopkins, & Newman, 2009). In the case of teacher union activism, research has focused on how teacher unions advocate for teachers’ rights, engage in equity and social justice initiatives, shape learning and working conditions, develop and enact policy, promote professional knowledge and learning, and defend public education (e.g., Stevenson & Gilliland, 2015).