Analysis of the Role of Policy Actors and Context in Educational Policies Enactment

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor in Department of Educational Planning & Management, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor in Department of Educational Planning & Manage ment, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

3 PhD Candidate in Educational Management, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Despite considerable research on the analysis of texts, policy principles and practices by educational policy researchers in Iran, one missing link has been the lack of attention to the role of local actors in the educational policy development process. Accordingly, the purpose of this descriptive-analytical study was to analyze the role of educational leaders as local policy actors in interpreting, translating, and enacting educational policies with respect to different cultural, legal, political, institutional, and contextual interventions. The method of this study was descriptive-analytical. Take into consideration lack of scientific-academic and institutional evidence in the field of educational policy in Iran, the most recent foreign literature related to the research topic was used for data collection. In analyzing the findings, it was attempted to consider, in addition to the texts, the observations and experiences of the authors as one of the examples of educational policy enactment. The findings of this study show that, unlike traditional approaches that mainly insist on mere policy implementation, the policy enactment emphasize that educational policies are conditionally based, moderated, and sometimes ignored. policy type, power and positionality, space and time constraints, as well as different subjectivities, plays an important role in changing, modifying, and ignoring educational policies.

Keywords


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