Uncovering The Legacy of Policy
An Ethnographic Account of a Secondary School’s Commitment to Creativity

Abstract

Uncovering The Legacy of Policy. An Ethnographic Account of a Secondary School’s Commitment to Creativity
By Pauline Moger

In the field of policy to date there is a tendency to focus upon the complexities of process associated with policy enactment; investigating the relationship between national policy discourse and the ways in which this discourse is creatively reconstituted in school-based contexts of practice. This thesis is concerned with the ways in which a school-based commitment to a specific policy – in this instance creativity – is sustained and has a legacy even after national policy discourse and priorities have changed.

The thesis employs an overarching ethnographic method and qualitative inquiry of the ‘field’ through which the research questions and aims are explored. The research approach adopted is a case study. The nature of relations and relationships in consideration and enactment of policy as legacy is examined and presented. A symbolic interactionist framework is employed to understand and interpret the interactional processes involved in the policy legacy of creativity.

The study identifies key factors and elements that play a critical part in a continued commitment to creativity in education, enacted through policy as a continuum of practice, building upon the seminal work of scholars such as Ball, Braun and McGuire. In this process this study locates and understands the context and significance of interaction between key policy actors pivotal to sustaining and embedding a commitment to creativity and as such questions established policy enactment conceptualization.