Policy-making trends in education : 1987-1994

Abstract

Policy formation is a powerful responsiblity in the hands of politicians or state managers, but which can also be affected by external groups which are dominant enough to influence the particular field. This exercise of power is consequential not to the agents of policy but to the practitioners and implementors. In this thesis concern lies with an investigation of which actors are initiating and generating policy in the field of education in Malta, and how their discursive practices are affecting the policies in education, whilst leaving other problems at bay. The theoretical perspective which has been utilised in this study emerges from McPherson and Raab's interactionist approach which includes concepts of a policy community or network. Since the period under research is between 1987 and 1994, focus of this thesis will be on the trends pursued by the Nationalist government and the Malta Union of Teachers in the process of policy formation. Recognising the Nationalist government's tactic of forming alliances with trade unions and following Darmanin' s work ( 1985, 1993a), the major theme within this anaylsis will be to establish the type of relationship this government has formed with the Malta Union of Teachers. Focusing on the policy-making process of decentralisation within the Education Act 1988, the interaction of this policy community was studied to identify the structures formed by the agents to determine policy. Importance is given to the powerful role of both Minister and Union within education, and the exclusion of other interest groups (as are parents, practitioners and students) from this ii particular policy community. This does not indicate that the community is only limited to the Minister and Union as there have been studies to show the participation from other groups or power blocks which have influenced the field but which will not be studied in this thesis. Evidently it is the discourses within these policy communities which will eventually effect which policies take on. As a result, whilst valuing the intended consequences, the unintended consequences become an important site of evaluation of this interaction and its effects on the education system.