Since the beginning, U.S. public schools have perpetuated harm towards students that do not fall under the descriptors of male, middle/upper class, cis-gender, heterosexual, able-bodied, neurotypical, and white. Education scholars with varying ideological backgrounds have approached questions of education equity for decades; yet, in asking these questions through the "white gaze" (Wright, 2023), some scholars have perpetuated the harm they seek to demystify. The following series of manuscripts express the dire need for (re)calibrating U.S. public schools so that all children receive just, equitable, and humanizing education. The first manuscript analyzes harmful white supremacist ideological hegemony embedded in education policy, the second manuscript is an ethnographic portrait (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis, 1997) that resists the "white gaze" and illuminates the good in a thriving classroom comprised of Black and Brown teachers and students through a lens of Black feminist theory, and the third manuscript interrogates what it takes emotionally and intellectually to do this work as a white woman scholar who seeks ubuntu feminist solidarity. The dissertation concludes with a posture of hope. Hope of an otherwise world (Greene, 1995) of education in which ubuntu feminist scholarship will inform praxis so that students may experience pedagogies that liberate instead of harm. / Doctor of Philosophy / Since the beginning, U.S. public schools have perpetuated harm towards students that do not fall under the descriptors of male, middle/upper class, cis-gender, heterosexual, able-bodied, neurotypical, and white. Various types of education scholars have approached questions of education equity for decades; yet, in asking these questions some scholars have perpetuated the harm they seek to examine. The following series of manuscripts express the dire need for (re)calibrating U.S. public schools so that all children receive just, equitable, and humanizing education. The first manuscript analyzes problems and harms embedded in education policy, the second manuscript gives the reader a seat in the classroom of an educator that exemplifies liberatory pedagogy, and the third manuscript interrogates what it takes emotionally and intellectually to do this work as a white woman scholar. The dissertation concludes with a posture of hope. Hope of an otherwise world (Greene, 1995) of education in which collective feminist scholarship will inform teaching practice so that students may experience pedagogies that liberate instead of harm.

Of the numerous public policy debates currently taking place throughout the United States, perhaps no issue receives more attention than the persistence of “chronically” low-performing public schools. As of 2009, approximately 5,000 schools—5% of the nation’s total—qualified as chronically low performing (Duncan, 2009d). Certainly, these statistics merit the attention of policy scholars, yet the political contestation of interests attempting to influence how the federal government should address such issues has reached a new fevered crescendo. Given the increased politicization of the federal government’s role in education and the growing number of interests attempting to influence the debates concerning school reform, education policy scholars have recognized the need to extend the field of policy studies by using analytical frameworks that consider both the discourse and performative dimensions of deliberative policy making. Therefore, this study addresses this particular need by employing a critical interpretive policy analysis that illustrates how both dominant discourses and the deliberative performances of the federal government shaped the policy vocabularies embedded within the Title I School Improvement Grant program of 2009 as the commonsense solutions for the nation’s chronically low-performing schools. In addition, this study provides a historical analysis, illustrating how the omnipresent threat of an economic crisis has been a primary influence in the politics of federal governance since the global economic collapse of the 1970s. This study demonstrates how over the course of the last four decades the United States has consistently reduced its commitment to the public sector, choosing instead to promote economic policies informed by the ideals of market-based liberalism. Subsequently, this study presents the argument that education, specifically the “chronic failure” of public schools, has emerged as a “primary emblematic issue” (Hajer, 1995) and now serves as an “effective metaphor for the nation’s economic crisis.” Thus, with such issues presented as a contextual backdrop, this study examines how the Obama/Duncan Administration operationalized dominant discourses and performative practices to establish consensual support for a turnaround reform agenda, effectively defining the policy solutions made available to those who participated in the revision of the Title I SIG program of 2009. / text

This research proposes a methodology to account for policy transaction costs and to assess how they condition the implementation of policy tasks. In light of an empirical analysis of the European Water Framework Directive implementation in 4 institutional contexts, this work (1) elaborates a typology of Policy Transaction Costs (PTC) determinants and (2) depicts stakeholders' strategies to cope with PTC ('arrangements'). We distinguish three main categories of arrangements: strategies to minimize either research and information collection costs, negotiation costs, or coordination costs. This research testifies that certain policy implementation decisions can be explained by the search for PTC minimization according to contextual determinants. Policy analysis shall thus consider PTC linked to policy implementation so as to anticipate (i) the constraints policy actors will face when implementing a given policy and (ii) how these actors are likely to respond to such constraints.

Cette recherche propose une méthodologie pour prendre en compte les coûts de transaction politiques et pour évaluer comment ils conditionnent la mise en œuvre d’une politique. A partir d’une analyse empirique de la Directive Cadre Eau, ce travail (1) propose une typologie des déterminants des Coûts de Transaction Politiques (CTP) et (2) présente les stratégies des acteurs pour pallier ces CTP (‘arrangements’). Les arrangements correspondent aux stratégies visant à minimiser soit des coûts de recherche et de collecte d’informations, des coûts de négociation, ou des coûts de coordination. Cette recherche témoigne que certains choix de mise en œuvre de politique peuvent s'expliquer par la recherche d'une minimisation des CTP selon des déterminants contextuels. La prise en compte des CTP pour l’analyse des politiques permet d’anticiper (i) les contraintes auxquelles les acteurs peuvent être confrontés lors de la mise en œuvre d’une politique et (ii) comment ils sont enclins à y répondre. / This research proposes a methodology to account for policy transaction costs and to assess how they condition the implementation of policy tasks. In light of an empirical analysis of the European Water Framework Directive implementation in 4 institutional contexts, this work (1) elaborates a typology of Policy Transaction Costs (PTC) determinants and (2) depicts stakeholders’ strategies to cope with PTC (‘arrangements’). We distinguish three main categories of arrangements: strategies to minimize either research and information collection costs, negotiation costs, or coordination costs. This research testifies that certain policy implementation decisions can be explained by the search for PTC minimization according to contextual determinants. Policy analysis shall thus consider PTC linked to policy implementation so as to anticipate (i) the constraints policy actors will face when implementing a given policy and (ii) how these actors are likely to respond to such constraints.

No description available.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jeffrey M. Peterson / State and local economic development policies are often created with the goal of stimulating local economic activity through employment growth. The success of these policies is commonly measured by the number of jobs they create. Because labor markets are not bound by county lines, commuting and migration are important factors to consider when measuring employment growth in a region. This study used county-level data from the 2000 Census to predict labor force participation, unemployment, in-commuting, and out-commuting. The model was estimated using Ordinary Least Squares regression and was simulated to predict changes in labor force, unemployment and commuting as a result of a change in employment for all 105 Kansas counties. An increase in employment was found to increase the labor force participation, in-commuting, and unemployment, while decreasing the number of out-commuters. The increase in in-commuting causes many of the economic benefits expected to accrue to the county where the job growth occurred to be essentially exported to the county where the in-commuters live. Failure to account for the proportion of new jobs filled by in-commuters would lead to significant over estimations of local impacts of employment growth. These results suggest that regional coordination of economic development policies, through the use of tools such as tax-base sharing, would provide substantial gains to otherwise competing local governments.

The main objective of this study is to increase knowledge of how mother tongue as a school subject is constructed, legitimized and positioned at the policy level. Based on the analysis of governmental policy documents, the thesis deals with mother tongue instruction (MTI) in the Swedish compulsory school, its historical development and status among other language subjects. The study draws on the curriculum theory, which means that the focus lies on the relationship between content of the curriculum and the historical, social and cultural context in which it was conducted. Regarding MTI, I argue that it is located at an intersection among immigration, education and language policies and must, therefore, be viewed in the light of them. With curriculum theory and discourse analysis as theoretical and methodological framework, I examine governmental policy documents from the 1960s to the current curriculum (Lgr11). The result shows that the introduction of MTI (named “home language”) in Swedish school in the 1970s was a part of an immigration policy directed towards immigrant children in order to compensate their special needs. It was argued that mother tongue was crucial for children's personal development and learning. The subject was aimed at all pupils with the home language other than Swedish and was seen as “almost mandatory”. However, the effects of MTI became questioned in the 1980-90s, which led to decreased access to MTI for students that did not belong to national minority groups. The status of the subject was weakened; in fact, it had no natural place in the school schedule. Under this period, the individual’s freedom of choice became valued more than the equality among students. The third period of the MTI history started in the late 1990s when the government articulated its willingness to raise the status of the subject. At present, the practice of MTI is regulated not only by the curriculum but also by the school law and the language law. MTI is currently a part of language policy, which is aimed at language pluralism. Indeed, the development of bilingualism has been stated as the goal of MTI in every curriculum since Lgr69. In the meantime, other language subjects do not aim at promoting bilingualism. This means that bilingualism is something that minority groups should strive for, but nothing majority students need. The current curriculum emphasizes the mother tongue’s significance for language acquisition and for learning in general. The focus still lies on the mother tongue’s importance for individuals but not for the society. Moreover, there are no connections mentioned between MTI and future studies and job opportunities, as the case is for other language subjects. By comparing syllabuses for other school languages I concluded that MTI is constructed as a kind of support subject, rather than as a regular language subject.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the extent to which selected aspects of sport policy in Japan and also UK/England are influenced by international forces. The objectives which underpin the research aim are to analyse the characteristics of the domestic policy areas and identify the varying degree of impact of external influences on domestic sport policy. The thesis examines the interactions between domestic and international factors that shape elite sport policy and anti-doping policy and seeks to identify how domestic institutional values and ideas have been shaped by global influences. Importantly, by analysing the nature and mechanisms of global influence that are manifest at the domestic level, it is intended to identify varying degree of impact external to national policy. To achieve the above objectives, a qualitative methodology and related documentary research methods are adopted in the empirical investigations. Policy document analysis and semi-structured interviews are employed. The cases of UK (or England where appropriate) are introduced in order to generate a deeper understanding of the development of Japanese elite sport and anti-doping policy. The thesis draws on a range of theoretical frameworks, including international relations theory, international regime theory and globalisation, to analyse the empirical data. By adopting these theoretical frameworks, it is aimed to identify the possible characteristics of international policy regimes in the policy areas of elite sport and anti-doping.

<p>The aim of this essayis to show how the issues of asylum and immigration have been formulated as security issues in EU policy by applying a discursive approach to policy analysis and securitization, analyzing selected policy texts produced by the European Commission and the Council for Justice and Home Affairs from 1999 to 2006. The positioning of these issues in the policy domain of 'Freedom, Security and Justice' has facilitated a linkage between these issues and issues like terrorism and organised crime and has enabled a formulation of asylum and immigration according to a logic of securitization. The analysis of policy texts aims at investigating how linkages between issues are represented, how these linkages shape issues, and how the policy, in formulating threats and responses, also represent the EU in very specific ways. Policy from this perspective is not the rational answer to an unambigous reality but rather, highly implicated in its production. An important part of this analysis is drawing out the implications of the policy, in terms of further policy development, as well as how the policy implicates particular ways of dealing with those represented as for instance 'illegal immigrants' or 'illegitimate asylum seekers'.</p>

Teacher education occupies a position between the school system and higher education. It is expected to both have an impact on the school system and to be influenced by it. Compared to other higher education programs, teacher education has more often been subject to government control and detailed regulation. This thesis deals with the various roles and functions ascribed to teacher education in its complex position within the educational system, and above all its relationship with the school system. The objective of the thesis is to increase knowledge on government policy, with regard to teacher education, and frames within which the policy is developed, that in turn creates the framework for teacher education.    The issues outlined above are processed through two sub-studies. The first sub-study deals with these issues in a general and historical perspective. The second sub-study is focused on a specific content (ICT) in initiatives for teacher education reforms. By analyzing arguments put forward in government policy from a curriculum theory perspective the thesis shows that teacher education throughout the whole review period was considered to mainly benefit and serve the school system. However, the significance attached to this service varies. Generally two trails are highlighted. The first involves the teacher education service of delivering the teachers that the school system requires in order to live up to expectations of today. The other definition of working in the service of the school system is to contribute to a future-oriented development of the current school system. In many cases these perspectives are combined but the trend in the period reviewed in this study is that the first definition, to work in the service of the contemporary school system, has been accorded ever greater prominence.