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Enacting school self-evaluation: the policy actors in Irish schools

Brown, Martin orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-5436-354X, Skerritt, Craig, O’Hara, Joe orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-1956-7640, McNamara, Gerry orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-9725-9304 and O’Brien, Shivaun (2023) Enacting school self-evaluation: the policy actors in Irish schools. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 32 (3). pp. 694-716. ISSN 0962-0214

Abstract
School self-evaluation is a low-stakes policy recently mandated in Ireland and while schools are becoming more consistent in engaging in this internal mode of evaluation, their engagement has not been uniform. This paper provides new ways of thinking about, understanding, and explaining how school self-evaluation plays out in Irish schools. Subscribing to the view that policies are not simply implemented but enacted through the creative processes of interpretation and translation, this paper shows how school self-evaluation is performed in Irish schools in various ways by various people. We identify numerous policy actors in our qualitative data: narrators, entrepreneurs, outsiders, transactors, enthusiasts, translators, critics, and receivers. This assortment of actors helps to bring school self-evaluation to life but as it comprises heterogeneous entities with varying characteristics, levels of experience, and motivations it is simply not possible for this policy to be implemented in schools as policymakers envisage.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Education policy; school selfevaluation; policy enactment; policy actors; Ireland
Subjects:Social Sciences > Education
Social Sciences > Teaching
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Institute of Education
Research Institutes and Centres > EQI - Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection
Publisher:Routledge
Official URL:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09620...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:30466
Deposited On:31 Oct 2024 14:40 by Vidatum Academic . Last Modified 31 Oct 2024 14:40
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