This paper asks the question: to what extent do inspection regimes, particularly the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), influence the work of a school, and how might that influence be conceptualised? It draws on an ESRC-funded study of 'policy enactments in secondary schools', which was based on case-study work in four 'ordinary' schools.…

This article draws on case studies of four English schools to explore some of the ways in which trade union representatives in these schools see their roles and the role of their unions in relation to how policy gets done in their schools. The article attempts two things. First, it details and describes some discomforts, oppositions and…

Drawing on a study of education policy enactments in four English secondary schools, this paper argues that different "types" of policies call-up different forms of enactments, and that teachers and others who work in schools will have different orientations towards some of these possible ways of "doing" school. Through…

In this paper, we focus on some of the ways in which schools are both productive of and constituted by sets of "discursive practices, events and texts" that contribute to the process of policy enactment. As Colebatch (2002: 2) says, "policy involves the creation of order--that is, shared understandings about how the various participants will act…

This paper is based on case-study research in four English secondary schools. It explores the pressure placed on English and mathematics departments because of their results being reported in annual performance tables. It examines how English and maths departments enact policies of achievement, the additional power and extra resources the pressure…

In this paper we describe some of the complexities involved in the construction of a sample of "ordinary" schools. We outline the policy context in England that produces pressures to resist "ordinariness". The paper then explores two theoretical tools, fabrication and rhetoric, that are deployed in an analysis of some key…

This paper draws on an ESRC-funded study of policy enactments in English secondary schools (RES-062-23-1484) based on case-study work in four similar "ordinary" schools. The study has two main objectives; to develop a theory of policy enactment and to explore empirically the differences in the enactment of policy in similar contexts.…

This paper, based on ESRC-funded research work in four case study schools, explores the "pressures" to "deliver" which bear upon English secondary schools in relation to GCSE performance. It further illustrates the ways in which pressure is transformed into tactics which focus on particular students, with the effect of…