Education Policy Analysis Archives

Regulation and normative rulemaking: Tensions amidst curricular flexibilization and standardization policies in Brazil (2017-2025)

Monica Ribeiro da Silva — 2026-09-15

This article discusses the processes of regulation and rulemaking of the determinations of the Law n. 13.415/17 (New Secondary Education) at state level, considering Brazilian federalism and drawing upon empirical data retrieved from the states of the southern region of Brazil. This is documentary research with content analysis procedures according to Bardin (2021). The main results indicate a process that is strained by centralization and decentralization mechanisms resulting, at the same time, in curricular diversification and standardization through the reproduction of propositions found in the document of the National Common Curricular Basis for Secondary Education—a process related to the prerogatives of Brazilian federalism.

Continuing the conversation: “Life is Good”—David Berliner's legacy

Jeanne M. Powers — 2026-03-17

Throughout his journey from applied researcher to world-renowned scholar, David Berliner was committed to education research that matters—not just within academic circles, but within classrooms and communities. As a public intellectual and a fierce advocate for public education, David expertly and courageously engaged in education debates, bridged research with practice, debunked myths and exposed misinformation, and in the process, reshaped how we understand education. This special issue of EPAA/AAPE celebrates David Berliner's legacy as a scholar, and more importantly, as someone who was deeply respected and cherished. What follows are personal essays by family members, friends, and colleagues that engage with David's ideas and inspire us to continue the conversations that David valued and fought for.

A complete list of his EPAA/AAPE articles may be found at: David C. Berliner Collection | Education Policy Analysis Archives

David Berliner's article, Educational Reform in an Era of Disinformation (1993) was the second article published in EPAA/AAPE. It launched David’s career as a scholar of educational policyand formed the basis of his award-winning book with Bruce Biddle, The Manufactured Crisis.

Social representations of Mexican free textbooks through internet memes: A dimensión of educational policy

Yazmín Cuevas-Cajiga — 2026-10-06

In Mexico, since 1959, primary school students have been required to use free textbooks (libros de texto gratuitos, or LTG in Spanish). These textbooks are produced by the State, and each revision has sparked controversy, often linked to claims that they disseminate ideologies and cultural patterns favorable to the political party in power. Between July and August 2023, a new controversy surrounding these materials emerged and spread across social media through internet memes. This article analyzes the social representations conveyed by some of the 138 memes that circulated on Facebook in connection with the 2023 LTG controversy. The aim is to demonstrate that memes circulating on social networking platforms have become an alternative arena in which disputes over educational policy take place and, at the same time, are imbued with social representations. The methodological approach was qualitative. The findings identify two main representations: the first portrays the textbooks of the Nueva Escuela Mexicana as instruments of indoctrination in communism and in the political thought of Andrés Manuel López Obrador; the second focuses on constructing an image of the critics of these educational materials.

From Salamanca to the present: Configurations and tensions in initial teacher education for inclusion

Javier Campos-Martínez — 2026-02-24

This introductory article examines advances, setbacks, and challenges in the programs of initial teacher education for inclusion, 30 years after the Salamanca Declaration. Drawing on recent international reports, policy documents, and empirical research, the article provides an updated overview of challenges facing teacher education, including persistent inequalities and the limited diversification of the teaching workforce. It situates inclusive education as a contested field shaped by policy developments and uneven institutional responses across contexts. The article reviews key conceptual shifts in the understanding of inclusion, moving beyond disability-centered approaches toward broader perspectives, and analyzes how these shifts have reshaped expectations of the teaching profession. It also identifies ongoing limitations within initial teacher education, such as deficit-based approaches and curricular fragmentation. Finally, the article introduces and contextualizes the contributions that compose the special issue, outlining how each article addresses these challenges from different contexts and analytical approaches.

Efficacy, efficiency, and effectiveness in public education: Critical foundations for a new administrative rationality

Raul Alonso — 2026-10-20

This conceptual article offers a critical, theoretically grounded reconceptualization of efficacy, efficiency, and effectiveness in educational administration and assessment. In response to semantic ambiguity, technocratic appropriations, and the absence of consistent normative criteria, it develops an epistemological clarification grounded in an interdisciplinary review and an original interpretive framework, culminating in rigorous, context-sensitive definitions of the Three Es. It associates efficacy with instrumental rationality and efficiency with technical rationality, while distinguishing effectiveness, understood as effects produced in real-world contexts, from full effectiveness, conceived as an ethical-political criterion oriented toward social justice, the common good, and meaningful change in the lives of members of the educational community. It argues that the dominance of instrumental and technical rationalities compromises the formative value of assessment and proposes reversing the technocratic hierarchy of the Three Es by subordinating goal attainment and resource optimization to the educational value of the effects produced, thereby recentering school governance on full effectiveness. A critical and operational matrix, illustrated through a heuristic example, reveals evaluative imbalances and implications for public policy. Full effectiveness therefore requires formative rigor, ethical deliberation, and contextual sensitivity, while revaluing pedagogical judgment and public schooling as a site of educational justice.

Advancing equitable access to quality education globally: Innovations in curriculum, teacher education, and professional development

Maria Teresa Tatto — 2026-01-13

This article introduces the special issue “Advancing Equitable Access to Quality Education Globally: Innovations in Curriculum, Teacher Education, and Professional Development,” featuring articles that report on a multi-country project examining the challenges and opportunities of globalization for three types of reforms that have seen significant innovation in the past decade. These reforms encompass the school curriculum, teachers' education, and teachers' professional development (collectively referred to in this article as SCTEPD). The reporting countries were undergoing rapid transformation that incorporated the three reforms when we began our work, and included: India, New Zealand, Peru, Scotland, and Wales. This introductory article offers a retrospective and prospective discussion of global reforms in three key areas of SCTEPD, providing context for the articles that follow. In this introductory article, we use Cohen and Mehta's (2017) theoretical framework to analyze these reforms, aiming to understand the conditions that lead to successful, lasting reforms and the extent to which these reforms have increased equity and quality in education for all learners.

School-safety law, local discretion, and the boundaries of protected speech: A Tennessee case study

Dustin Hornbeck — 2026-09-08

In this paper, I offer a critical case study of how a state law aimed at preventing mass violence in schools has been applied to restrict expression, both inside and outside educational settings. Tennessee’s threat-of-mass-violence statute has produced felony charges, expulsions, and detentions for students as young as 10, and, in its most extreme application, the arrest and five-week incarceration of a retired police officer for sharing a political meme with no connection to any school. This case raises questions about the interpretive reach of educational laws. Using the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, I examine how this educational policy extended beyond educational settings and into a politically charged context. I use a set of documented cases, anchored by one extreme and well-documented example, to explore the legal ambiguity and discretionary power embedded in a single state policy. This study contributes to an understanding of how education policy can intersect with civil liberties, especially when enacted in an era of heightened polarization and public concern over school violence.

Setbacks in Brazilian educational policies: An analysis based on youth and adult education (2015-2022)

Rubens Luiz Rodrigues — 2026-08-25

This article analyzes educational policies for the schooling of young people and adults in Brazil between 2015 and 2022. It starts from this analytical question: how did the socioeconomic and ideopolitical resurgence present in Brazilian society between 2015 and 2022 mark educational policies for the schooling of young people and adults? The objectives are: to analyze the effects of the capitalist crisis in the Brazilian context on the schooling of young and adult workers and to demonstrate the meaning of the setbacks in Youth and Adult Education (EJA, acronym in Portuguese) policies, focusing on the National Education Plan (2014-2025), the National Literacy Plan (PNA), and the National Program for the Integration of Professional Education with Basic Education in the Youth and Adult Education Modality (Proeja). As a methodological procedure, a bibliographic survey and document analysis were carried out to understand the schooling processes of young people and adults. The findings reinforce that resistance and overcoming setbacks in EJA imply re-establishing this modality as a universal right and as an instrument of critical education from the perspective of social transformation.

Introduction to the special issue: Science of Reading policies

Rachael Gabriel — 2025-11-11

Over the past decade, a wave of literacy policy reforms—often framed under the banners of the “Science of Reading” (SoR) and the “right to read”—has spread internationally from England to the United States, Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. These reforms, while consistent in their emphasis on structured approaches to early reading instruction, have sparked significant controversy and debate. This special issue examines the global phenomenon of literacy-focused education reform, exploring how reading is constructed as a policy problem and mobilized through political agendas, media narratives, and privatized intermediary organizations. Contributors analyze the complex interplay between policy implementation and educational infrastructure, revealing how reforms influence not only pedagogy but also curriculum, assessment, professional development, and leadership. Drawing on diverse international contexts and methodological approaches, the papers interrogate the consequences of centralized control, rapid implementation, and market-driven solutions. Findings suggest that despite widespread adoption, SoR-related policies have not consistently led to improved outcomes or equity and often exacerbate systemic issues such as racial and linguistic oppression. The issue highlights the dangers of politically driven pedagogy and the erosion of educational expertise, raising critical questions about accountability, democratic governance, and the future of literacy education.

School coexistence policies between democracy and control: Multilevel policy reconfigurations in Mexico and Morelos

Erika Rivero — 2026-08-11

This study examines school coexistence policy in Mexico as a dynamic process of configuration, translation, and reconfiguration across multiple levels, from its normative formulation to its appropriation in school practice. Adopting a qualitative sociocritical approach, a multilevel design was developed that articulates the analysis of national policy frameworks, their recontextualization in the state of Morelos, and their interpretation in the practices of primary and secondary school teachers and principals. The analysis was guided by dimensions derived from the paradigms of control and sanction, and democratic coexistence. The findings show that the policy is configured as a hybrid structure marked by tension, in which formative orientations coexist with regulatory dispositifs, with a predominance of a logic of control and risk management, particularly at the local level. This is reinforced by institutional conditions and contexts shaped by violence and insecurity. Nevertheless, in school practice, teachers and principals reconfigure policy through situated strategies that prioritize relationships and the pedagogical meaning of coexistence. The study contributes to understanding school coexistence as a field of tensions among normative regulation, institutional conditions, and teacher agency.