This document discusses conceptual foundations of educational issues from both a policy and sociological perspective. It covers topics such as policy definitions, the policy process including formulation, adoption, implementation and evaluation. It also examines stakeholders in the policy process and the sociological perspective on the functions of schooling in society. Specifically, it describes functionalism theory which posits that schools play a role in maintaining social harmony and cultural transmission by socializing students and preparing them for their future adult roles.

1. 1
Topic 2: Conceptual foundations of
educational issues
EPA4192 | February 2009 | Benson Wong
1EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009)
2 perspectives
1. Policy perspective
 How is an issue translated into a set of goals
and actions to be articulated, implemented
and reviewed by the government , shaping
stakeholders
2. Sociological perspective
 How is an issue understood, interpreted and
reacted personally and collectively in the
social system
2EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009)

2. 2
Policy – definitions
 “A proposed course of action of a person, group, or
government within a given environment providing
obstacles and opportunities which the policy was
proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a
goal or realize an objective or a purpose” (Friedrich,
1963)
 A relatively stable, purposive course of action, followed
by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or
matter of concern. This statement focuses on what is
actually done instead of what is only proposed or
intended, and it differentiates a policy from a decision,
which is essentially a specific choice among alternatives”
(Anderson, J. 2000)
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Policy – steps
1. Policy demands:
 problems, concerns, crises, ……
2. Policy statement
 Formal expressions or articulations of public policy
3. Policy output
 The action actually taken in pursuance of policy and
statements
4. Policy outcome
 A policy’s societal consequences (reactions, responses)
 Different stakeholders may have different impacts
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3. 3
Policy – politics
 Policymaking involves “politics”
 Who get how, what and when
 Authoritarian allocation of resources
 Its features include conflicts, negotiations,
bargaining, the exercise of power, threat, and
compromise
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Policy – context
1. Political culture
 Values, attitudes and perceptions of stakeholders
toward the government, leaders, bureaucrats, officers,
etc.
2. Socioeconomic conditions. E.g.,
 Demographics (gender, age-group patterns, location,
ethnicities)
 Social classes (grassroots, middle-class, higher class)
 Level of literacy
 Economic features (Agrarian, business-
commercial/financial, mixed, high/info-tech)
 Globalization (changes)
 post-modernity (no definite patterns)
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4. 4
Stakeholders
1. Official policy-makers
 Leaders, bureaucrats
2. Unofficial participants
a) Interest/pressure groups
b) Political parties
c) Research organizations/think-tanks
d) Communication/mass media
e) Individual citizens (parents, students)
f) Entrepreneurs???
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Policy formulation [1]
1. Problem identification
1. What is a public problem?
2. Why does some condition or matter become a public
problem?
3. How does a problem get on a governmental agenda?
4. Why do some problems not achieve agenda status?
 How a problem is defined depends on how it is
socially constructed
 The definition of problems is often a political process
8EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009)

5. 5
Policy formulation [2]
2. Formulation
1. Who is involved?
2. Who participates in policy formulation?
3. How are alternatives for dealing with a
problem developed?
4. Are there biases in formulating policy
proposals?
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Policy adoption [1]
1. Adoption
1. How is a policy alternative adopted or
enacted?
2. What requirements must be met?
3. Who are the adopters?
4. What is the content of the adopted policy?
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6. 6
Policy adoption [2]
 Theories of decision-making
1. The rational-comprehensive theory
1. Compares problems
2. Clarify/rank goals, values and objectives
3. Study options for problem solving
4. Costs and benefits studied
5. Option/impact compared with others
6. Choose option that achieves policy goal
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Policy adoption [3]
2. The incremental theory
 Real world: policies change incrementally
through comparisons between no change and
small change
1. Policy proceeds through small changes
2. Policy as series of decisions
3. Small changes accepted by actors
4. Model flexible
5. Decisions: minor change
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7. 7
Policy adoption [4]
3. Mixed Scanning:
 Fundamental decisions
 Then incremental decisions
4. Public Choice
 Market for votes and for public policies
 Basic unit: individual’s self-interest
 Politicians need votes
 Individuals as self-seeking actors
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Policy adoption [5]
 Decision criteria
 Values
 Political party affiliation
 Public opinion
 Styles of decision-making
 Bargaining
 Persuasion
 Command (the above 2 is in top-down
approach)
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8. 8
Policy implementation [1]
 Who is involved?
 What is done to enforce or apply a policy?
 How does implementation help shape or
determine the content of the policy?
 Patterns of policy-making
 Rule-making (legislation)
 Law enforcement
 Program operations
15EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009)
Policy implementation [2]
 Techniques of control
1. Inspection
2. Licensing
3. Loan, subsidies, and benefits
4. Contracts
5. General expenditure
6. Taxation ……
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9. 9
Policy evaluation
1. Who is the advantaged and
disadvantaged by a policy?
2. What are the consequences of policy
evaluation?
3. Are new problems identified?
4. Are there demands for changes or repeal
of the policy?
5. Is the policy process restarted because of
evaluation?
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Policy analysis [1]
1. Policy as text
 Laws, articles, regulations, guidelines
2. Policy as process (cycle)
 Agenda-setting  policy formulation 
policy implementation  policy evaluation
 policy change  policy termination
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10. 10
Policy analysis [2]
3. Policy as discourse
 Discourses are about what can be said, and
thought, but also about who can speak, when
and with what authority
 How is it that one particular statement
appeared rather than other
 The concept of discourse emphasizes the
social processes that produce meaning (Ball,
1990)
19EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009)
Policy analysis [3]
 Practice of silencing: Authoritarian voice
/version; certain voices are expressed but not
heard
 What is not said in schools: difficulties, dilemma,
pain, desperate
 Continuous interpretation and reconstruction
(Popkewitz, 1981)
 Policy studies, and the analysis associated with
them, aim to empower humans to undertake
more effective collective action to solve or reduce
significant policy problems (Boyd & Plank, 1995)
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11. 11
Sociological perspective
 Functions of schooling in a society
1. Functionalism:
 positive functions of schooling – benefit the
whole society
2. Conflict theory:
 negative functions of schooling – benefit only
the advantaged (the rich, the privileged, the
powerful) so as to maintain inequality
 The society (of capitalism) is in conflict: the rich
VS the poor; the powerful VS the powerless
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 21
Socialization [1]
 A process in which individuals acquire their
knowledge, skills, customs, ideas, religion,
and morals from their social environment 
shape the personalities of individuals  can
adjust and become members of society
 Socialization goes on throughout one’s life
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 22
Family,
Media,
Religion
SCHOOL (rules,
norms, hierarchy) Workplace

12. 12
Socialization [2]: necessary
 For the society
 (continuous) reproduction – schooling (in which
knowledge and skills are taught) has become very
important since the rise of industrial societies
 Cultural preservation and development: History
 For the individual
 In order to be understood (language, social skills)
 In order to survive (physical and social)
 In order to develop one’s self (talents and experts)
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 23
Schools: Functions
 What role does a school play?
1. Functionalism:
 Social harmony
 To enable the shared culture: value, norms and
beliefs and economic activities to be maintained
and developed continuously
2. Conflict theory
 Social conflicts, inequality
 To enable the advantaged people (dominant
class) to preserve their advantaged (dominant)
status
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13. 13
Functionalism
 Who? Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
 Family as the primary socialization
 Limit children into a particular culture
 Intimate relationship
 School as the secondary socialization:
enrich social experience
 Prepare students to take the role of adults, to
lead the adult
 Start Instrumental relationship
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 25
Functionalism and schooling [1]
Pre-industralized societies Since industrialization
• Relatively simple, not so
differentiated
• Family’s functions:
socialization, education,
welfare and work, ……
• Religion’s functions: culture
and politics, ……
• society expanded, more complex
and differentiated
• human relations becoming
instrumental
• one need to learn how to
cooperate with others
• social norms (normal
relationships) established
• “anomie” (which is against some
social norms) occurred
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 26

14. 14
Functionalism and schooling [2]
 Family:
 Based on feeling
 Warm cushion
 SCHOOL: GAP between family and workplace
 To liberate the family’s dependence
 To prevent ‘anomies’
 Workplace
 Based on mutual benefits
 ‘instrumental’ relationship
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 27
Schooling: Secondary socialization
 Children begin to learn how to lead a social
life
 To obey rules and authority, be punctual, respect
others, respect authority, be responsible, etc.
 To internalize more social values
 To teach knowledge and skills to satisfy the
economic needs of a society
 To enable the students to find a job in the society
in the future = to provide the skilled labors in the
industrial sector
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 28

15. 15
2 basic functions of schooling
1. To coordinate human resources
 Through selection and grouping (academic
recognition), allocating students to different
adult (economic, political, social) roles
2. To transfer traditional cultural values
 What kind of cultural values?
 Chinese culture: conformity, loyalty, obedience,
being humble?
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 29
Functionalism: challenges
 Conflict and tension among competing
groups and classes since industrialization,
questioning the functionality of
functionalism
 force and power direct individual actions
/choices/desires
 Is the society functional under force and power
as well as an unequal society?
 Behind functionalism  rationalize inequalities
and exploitation?
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 30

16. 16
Theory of conflicts on schooling
 Who? Karl Mark (1818-1883)
 Schooling is nothing but an institution that
transfers ideologies (socially accepted
values and beliefs – some false
consciousness) and that enables them to
continue
 Schooling benefits the ruling, wealthy or
advantaged (capitalist) class who
dominates the society
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 31
Socialization of schooling: Conflict Theory
 To make students acquire (sometimes
unconsciously) some beliefs or ideas so
that they can accept without questioning
those who have advantaged statuses
 Accept the inequality between the advantaged
and the disadvantaged
 To rationalize the inequalities (in wealth,
income, power, and status) in the society
 These inequalities being structural products
necessarily exist in all capitalist states
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 32

17. 17
What rationalized ideas?
 Capitalism is the best economic system
 Fair competition (???)
 The economic inequalities are all right and
inevitable
 “Different awards should be given to different academic
achievements. Our society values merits very much; all
positions should be filled by those (the able people)
who fit them”
 “Competitions bring about improvements”
 The success of the few and the failure of the many
are rationalized as individuals’ merits or
mistakes, not a fundamental problem of a social
institution (i.e., school, family, government)
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 33
Effects of schooling
 Ideology transference
 Cooperating, and participating in the production
and reproduction activities of the capitalist
societies
 Continuously being exploited and marginalized
socially, politically, ethnically, and economically
 Continuously maintaining and rationalizing the
social inequalities
 The disadvantaged are destined, OR
 The disadvantaged strive for being the advantaged
(through competition)
EPA4192-T2 (Feb 2009) 34