The aim of this article is to describe and analyze how school leaders as key actors in policy enactment understand, talk about and act in relation to Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMSs) enrolled in a separate Language Introduction Program in Sweden. Drawing on the work of Stephen J. Ball and colleagues, we argue that a particular discursive…

Over the past 35 years, a range of 'new' policy actors and networks has emerged from the private sector under the rationale of efficient, free-market alternatives to traditional public policymakers. Under a critical policy studies framework, this paper uses discourse analysis and interviews with key stakeholders to examine how one regional…

Driven by a desire to improve academic outcomes and transform "failing" schools, governments around the world have often turned to the development of new forms of state-funded school. This paper looks at three such instances of the introduction of new forms of schooling, within three urban localities (academy schools in London; charter…

This paper explores Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Schools, a local variant of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD's) influential PISA that not only assesses an individual school's performance in reading, mathematics and science against international schooling systems, but also promotes 17…

Teach for All is a good example of a globally travelling educational reform policy. In this article, we examine the rhetoric of the reform through an analysis of its public discourse, specifically the websites for the umbrella organization, 3 of its 35 constituent projects (Teach for America, Teach First and Teach for China) and one associated…

This article seeks to augment an emerging interest in education policy research in enactment theorising, to explicitly consider the role and contribution of materiality in this theorising. Guided by the notion of policy "matters," the article takes as its empirical context a major policy initiative, the Building the Education Revolution…

This article is subdivided into three closely linked parts. It initially starts with a description of the background and objectives of the Textbook Delivery Program (TDP). This is followed by an analysis of the factors of implementation on the basis of the field notes gathered during the inquiry. An analysis of the impact of these factors on…

In an era of curricular accountability where everything from reading and math scores to body fat are events to be assembled, scrutinized, and standardized, the health-conscious school plays an ever-important role in community and the nation (or so we are told). This qualitative study analyzes interviews with school leaders in their role in…

This article examines the state's contemporary construction of "sex" as an educational problem in England. It does so by interrogating the notion of the "pregnant teenager" as it is semantically and statistically constructed in accountability discourses, as well as research constrained within them. It then examines certain…

Partnerships are seen as vital to the functioning of many social institutions and the contribution that the private and voluntary not-for-profit sector organizations can make to the provision of statutory services is particularly valued. The Church of England Children's Society Genesis project worked for nearly 5 years in one urban, secondary…

An earlier article published in this journal sought to recover the views of professionals concerned with the delivery and implementation of a "Third Way" multiagency programme tackling the social exclusion of young children and their families known as Sure Start. The tentative findings suggested a "bottom-up" partnership…