Learning Outcomes:
The course will focus on cases and readings in key public policy issues in industrialized countries and on explanations of policy change and action. It will explore these for their importance to both the study and the practice of policy-making. The focus will be predominantly but not exclusively on policy and policy-work within education and children & youth studies.
Course learning activities will be directed at the following objectives in particular:
· To foster informed and critical policy analysis through the study of research and literature which locates policy-making within a robust theoretical, historical and comparative perspective.
· To develop individual capacity for constructive critical debate on theoretical, methodological and empirical issues in policy analysis.
· To seek convergences between the world of policy theory and policy practice through engagement with practitioners and policy issues of contemporary policy significance in the field of education and children & youth.
By the conclusion of the module, students will be expected to be able to:
· offer informed, critical analysis of policy action and processes;
· comprehend the role of policy agents and policy actors in complex policy action;
· recognise and critique a range of public policy models relevant to their field of practice; and
· design a meaningful and insightful policy-aspect for use in masters' level research.
Indicative Module Content:
Critical Policy Analysis: An Introduction
• The nature of Public Policy
• Understanding Policy Making
• Criticality & Analysis: getting value from this module
The Contexts of Policy work
Theorising & Studying the policy process; modern models & frameworks (1)
Theorising & Studying the policy process; modern models & frameworks (2)
Policy, Politics and Power
Agentive and institutional aspects of policy making
Reading and Understanding Policy Briefs
Technical Assistance as a policy modality; case study 1.
Digital Competence as a policy arena; case study 2.
Policy as Assemblage
• Actors, agents, and brokers
• Institutional framings & policy governance
• Module assignment briefing