Policy paradigms and political decision-making *** the case of the Round Table for Education and Child Opportunities Eszter Neumann University of ELTE, Hungary Merging scenes and circulation of knowledge 5th Interpretive Policy Analysis Conference Grenoble, June, 23-25, Panel 33.

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Expert networks in education policy… „ [Social scientists] look at this with the attitude of the bug collector. They pin up a bug, now you look at the health and the education sector, they examine it, and they say »Yuck!« That’s all, then they leave. (…) But pedagogy stays.” (pedagogic expert, 70)

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Structure of the Presentation 1. What do we mean by merging scenes? 2. Cognitive patterns and policy paradigm  Disciplinary discourses performed in the political sphere  Case study: the Round Table for Education and Child Opportunities 3. Competing scientific paradigms and political choices

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Merging Scenes Public action (Commaille 2004)  multisited approach → cognitive dimension: Locations of problematizations A conceptual tool  Dramaturgical approach: staging alternative policy paradigms Classic question: how do scientific understandings (of education) interact with political rationalities? [Foucault 1991, Rose 1999, Weingart 1999, Maasen&Weingart 2005, etc.]

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Co-construction: expertise and policy-making 1990’s Major Public Actions  Content regulation (curricular policies) Expertise  Value oriented, „ideological”  Normative positions Knowledge centres (R&D)  State-maintained research institutes Mid 2000’s- Major Public Actions  Steering, quality management  Educational integration  Competence development Expertise  disciplinary paradigms, truth claims - Cognitive flows  International streams Knowledge centres (R&D)  Financial cut-backs  development agencies (EU funding)

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. The Round Table for Education and Child Opportunities ( ) „vacuum situation” in the field of expertise governmental programme of rationalizing public services  State Reform Committee, PM  Core team of economists Methods: 1 year long non-participant observation; Interviews with key actors, discourse analysis

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Policy paradigm (Hall, 1990) Deliberative scene: performative character  cognitive streams, competing scientific discourses  Enacted/negotiated/ignored discourses What is the content of the propositions?  Expert coalition: economists, sociologists, ‘educational scientists’, a neuro-psychologist  how different disciplinary approaches merged in the political sphere? Policy paradigm ( ): Social inclusion Policy-core of belief systems (Sabatier&Jenkins-Smith 1999):  improvement of the education of the disadvantaged  discourse of abilities and skills development

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Economic competi- tiveness Skills assessment social integration Early Intervention compen- sation System development Pedagogic autonomy Nurturing talents account- ability Education science psychology economics sociology

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Interactions between scenes: when politics comes back Multiple scenes, plurality of idea streams  Scenes as resources – multiple postions  Scientific credibility – legitimization of propositions  Policy knowledge entrepreneurism Government’s political support gradually decreased… “New Knowledge” programme (03/2008)  Assembles fragments of the recommendations  …and various idea streams, academic discourses

IPA Grenoble Panel 33. Will social sciences stay…? Political programmes shaped by disciplinary paradigms  lack of strategic centre → equally influential paradigms from political perspective  Heteroglossia; grand narrative: economic competitiveness, the accountability of public services  Echange of arguments among disciplines performed as political;  Yet hardly compatible and commensurable in scientific terms elections: scientific paradigms objects of political negotiation Shift in the grand narrative: Social inclusion → Early childhood development

Thank you for your attention! Eszter Neumann ELTE, Faculty of Social Sciences Budapest, Hungary