Full Description
This first full account of curriculum policy formulation in 1990s Ontario helps readers understand the real-life experiences of policymakers both within the province and internationally.
Having worked as a policy analyst for the Government of Ontario, a public school teacher, and a university professor, author Laura Elizabeth Pinto is uniquely positioned to tackle the key issues of policy formulation: the politics and tensions among different policy actors; the relationships between democracy in education and in policy formation; and the hidden role of privatization.
Based on interviews with key policy actors, including ministry bureaucrats, curriculum policy writers, stakeholder consultation participants, and political staffers, Curriculum Reform in Ontario provides a critique of conventional policy formulation processes. Pinto also suggests possibilities for more participatory approaches to policy formulation that can better support the critical role played by schools in creating democratic societies.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: The Ideal of Critical-Democrative Policy Production
Chapter 2: The Politics of 'Common Sense' Policy Production
Chapter 3: Restructuring Education
Chapter 4: HIdden Privatization in the Institutional Culture: Policy Actors, of 'Hired Guns'?
Chapter 5: Policy Writers, Power and Politicization: Were the Books Already Cooked
Chapter 6: Citizen (Dis)Engagements in Selection and Consultations
Chapter 7: Perceived Policy Outcomes and their Absense of Democracy
Chapter 8: An Exploration of Possibilities: Porto Alegre, Brazil as an Analytic Foil Contrasting Ontario
Chapter 9: Conclusion
References
Appendix A: Policy Actor Profiles
Appendix B: Understanding and Participating in Curriculum Change
Appendix C: Ministry of Education Organization Chart, 1999
Appendix D: Policy Formulation Timeline
End Notes
