Tracing translation of an education policy initiative (Maths Mastery) into primary school teachers' classroom practices: an actor-network theory ethnography

Abstract

Teachers’ classroom practices in the English primary sector have long been subject to prolific intervention by government policy and policy initiatives. The influence of education policy and policy initiatives on teachers’ classroom practices has been discussed from multiple perspectives, including theories intended to increase effectiveness of policy implementation and others aimed at problematising government policy-led standardisation efforts. However, few studies empirically describe how policies come to be part of teachers’ classroom practices. This thesis seeks to address this gap in the literature. Drawing on data from a four-month short-term ethnography in a primary school in the north of England, I describe how one policy initiative – Maths Mastery – is translated into teachers’ classroom practices. I use a combined theoretical framework of actor-network theory (ANT) and literacy studies (LS) as a lens through which to view ethnographic data, drawing particularly on Callon’s four moments of translation to describe key moments in the adoption of the new policy initiative into existing classroom practices. The findings of this thesis offer schools, policy-makers and the academic field an example of the ways in which a government policy initiative interrupts and changes existing classroom practices by becoming part of the network of practices in a school. Material actors, particularly texts, are described as key to the establishment of changes to practices, and yet reliant upon the work of human actors, particularly spokespersons for the change. This thesis thus argues the value of attending to associations between human and non-human actors in studies of policy-based change.