Abstract:
This study interrogates how terms related to quality and expertise are discursively linked across documents produced by ‘experts’ in teacher education. We interrogate the understandings, practices, and conditions of influence for the policy actors inscribed in the TEEP report ‘Strong Beginnings’. In this presentation, we align with Ball's perspective that policy should be viewed as a dynamic process rather than a presumed, ready-made solution to a problem. Recognising policy as a process extends beyond mere implementation, or “policy enactment”, we emphasise both context and the diverse array of stakeholders, or policy actors, actively engaged in the policy process. We utilise systematic conceptual coding using Leximancer, and supplementary textual analysis to enable a nuanced exploration of a dynamic policy enactment process in teacher education.
Two main propositions are evident: first, that there is a problem with quality in ITE; and second, that practice is foregrounded in professionalisation. The first proposition is discursively represented through the discourse of quality improvement through regulation. The second proposition is represented through the discourse of professionalisation through practice. We highlight the consistencies and contradictions within the discourses of the final report and the submissions from policy actors that contributed to this policy enactment process.
Two main propositions are evident: first, that there is a problem with quality in ITE; and second, that practice is foregrounded in professionalisation. The first proposition is discursively represented through the discourse of quality improvement through regulation. The second proposition is represented through the discourse of professionalisation through practice. We highlight the consistencies and contradictions within the discourses of the final report and the submissions from policy actors that contributed to this policy enactment process.