Disciplinary texts: a policy analysis of national and local behaviour policies

Abstract

Drawing on ESRC-funded research this paper considers some characteristics of the policy process in schools using the construction of behaviour policy in four English secondary schools as a case in point. It argues that behavior policy, like other policies, is enacted in particular and distinct institutional contexts with their own histories; that behaviour policy at the school level is an ensemble of issues/fragments, principles, directives/imperatives and procedures/practices which are messy and complex; and that behaviour policy is very much a collective enterprise. This process of construction and enactment of policy draws upon a range of resources developed within contexts of recontextualisation and involves sophisticated interpretations and translations of policy texts into action.