The Language of Education Policy
Subtitle: From Thatcher to Blair
Publisher: Dr Muller VDM
Published: October 2009
Place of publication: Saarbrucken
Number of pages: 251
ISBN-13: 9783639184891
Subjects: Linguistics, CDA; Political Economy
Genres: Academic Monograph
First sentence: This book presents the findings of an interdisciplinary investigation of UK education policy language in the late capitalist era.
Description: There can be no doubt about the increased role of promotional language in the practice of contemporary politics. Governing through ‘media spin’ has become a familiar paradigm across many national contexts in recent decades. At the same time education policy has come to be seen in the UK as a key strategy for securing economic prosperity and social inclusion. For this reason there is growing critical interest in the relationship between policy, rhetoric, and the often conflicting demands of economy and society. The Language of Education Policy presents a systematic historical investigation of this dynamic during three decades of UK education policy spanning five prime ministers from Heath to Blair. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) and neo-Marxist state theory, the book explores the textual dynamics involved in changing forms of educational governance, and critically examines the tensions and inequalities inherent in shaping a knowledge-based, learning society. By devising a computer-aided method of analysis, this book also presents a means of systematically applying CDA to a large body of historical data. Key themes in the book include the increasing use of a personalised, inclusive style of political rhetoric to help legitimate contentious policy claims, as well as the unique linguistic forms arising from the trend towards ‘managerialism’ in contemporary governance. This book will be of interest to academics and graduate students interested in educational sociology, politics and linguistics.
Table of contents: pagenum: 1
title: Education Policy and Critical Discourse Analysis; pagenum: 10
title: Discourse and Social Change; pagenum: 26
title: The Historical Context; pagenum: 60
title: A Corpus-based Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis; pagenum: 86
title: Representation of the Government Part 1: from Heath to Major; pagenum: 137
title: Representation of the Government Part 2: the Blair Period; pagenum: 173
title: Managed Actions; pagenum: 190
title: Keywords and Emergent Discourses; pagenum: 211
title: Conclusions