Papers by Jane M Mulderrig
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, 2024
Critical Policy Discourse Analysis is a method for critically investigating the linguistic mechan... more Critical Policy Discourse Analysis is a method for critically investigating the linguistic mechanisms by which education policy is constituted and contested in specific contexts. It involves a systematic methodology for textual and contextual analysis, designed to explore historically specific policy problems and their ideological significance. The analytical procedures involved in this approach are illustrated by means of a case study examining the introduction of quality-assurance governance practices and market-oriented reforms to UK higher education. Specifically, the ‘Teaching Excellence Framework’ (TEF), introduced in 2017, has two core purposes: to audit and rank universities by teaching quality, and to open up the university market to private (for-profit) providers. A critical investigation of the language through which this policy was introduced and legitimated reveals the neoliberal principles which underpin it, and demonstrates how it operates as a dehumanising technique of calculation and surveillance, while subordinating universities’ societal role to the needs of the economy. Corpus-aided methods are combined with a framework for close textual analysis of policy data, and reveal the systematic linguistic processes by which student-consumer subjectivities are constructed, and the rhetoric of ‘choice’ and ‘value for money’ is (mis)represented as the key to greater access and social mobility for students. This policy takes a significant step towards recasting educational relations in extrinsic, exchange-value terms, which are deeply damaging to universities’ original purpose of building communities of critical reflection, intellectual freedoms, and trust.
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VDM Verlag Dr. Müller eBooks, Oct 9, 2009
There can be no doubt about the increased role of promotional language in the practice of contemp... more There can be no doubt about the increased role of promotional language in the practice of contemporary politics. At the same time education policy has come to be seen in the UK as a key strategy for securing economic prosperity. For this reason there is growing critical interest in the relationship between policy, rhetoric, and the often conflicting demands of economy and society. 'The Language of Education Policy' explores this dynamic in three decades of UK education policy spanning five prime ministers from Heath to Blair. Using critical discourse analysis the book examines the textual dynamics of changing forms of educational governance, and critically examines the tensions and inequalities inherent in shaping a knowledge-based, learning society. By devising a computer-aided method of analysis, this book also presents a means of systematically applying CDA to a large body of historical data. Key themes in the book include the increasing use by New Labour of a personalised, inclusive style of political rhetoric to legitimize contentious policy claims, and the increasing language of ‘managerialism’ in contemporary governance.
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Springer international handbooks of education, Nov 26, 2014
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Discourse & Society, Nov 1, 2012
This article presents findings from a critical historical analysis of UK education policy discour... more This article presents findings from a critical historical analysis of UK education policy discourse from 1972 onwards. It argues that the pronoun we was introduced as an important rhetorical tool by which New Labour was able to legitimate its policy decisions through the idea of a neoliberal ‘consensus’ on the context of education, while at the same time articulating a ‘politics of inclusion’. The study combined a corpus-aided approach to critical discourse analysis with political economic theory in order to interpret the data in relation to its historical context of a profound rethink of the relationship between education, the state and the economy. The analysis reveals how the flexible semantics of person deixis are exploited in a highly systematic way so as to claim consensus over politically contestable claims.
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Critical Policy Studies, Nov 8, 2017
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Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2007
Chapter 7 Textual Strategies of Representation and Legitimation in New Labour Policy Discourse Ja... more Chapter 7 Textual Strategies of Representation and Legitimation in New Labour Policy Discourse Jane Mulderrig Introduction This chapter presents a critical discourse analysis of education policy texts issued under the New Labour government. The analysis focuses on the discourse ...
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Critical Discourse Studies, Oct 8, 2017
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SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks, 2011
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Critical Policy Studies, Oct 1, 2016
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Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 2019
Critical Policy Discourse Analysis bridges the literature on critical discourse analysis (CDA) an... more Critical Policy Discourse Analysis bridges the literature on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and critical policy analysis to provide a practical guide on how to combine these major approaches to critical social science. The volume gives a clear introduction to concepts and analytical procedures for critical policy discourse analysis. Utilising ten international case studies, the authors explain and critically reflect upon the methods and theories that they have used to successfully integrate CDA with critical policy studies across a diverse range of policy issues. Case studies are used to explore issues in economics, health, education, crisis management, the environment, language and energy policy. Analysing these through discursive methodological approaches in the traditions of CDA, social semiotics and discourse theory, this book connects this discursive methodology systematically to the field of critical policy studies. This is an essential read for researchers wishing to practically combine methods of CDA with critical policy studies. It provides key insights for politics scholars looking to gain a more in-depth understanding of the impact and analysis of discourse.
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Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 2019
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BRILL eBooks, 2008
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Peter Lang eBooks, Feb 26, 2021
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This paper investigates the textual processes of modern biopower by analysing the use of ‘nudge’ ... more This paper investigates the textual processes of modern biopower by analysing the use of ‘nudge’ tactics in health policy. It brings the Foucauldian concept of ‘biopower’ into dialogue with critical discourse analysis to investigate the increasing use of insights from behavioural economics (or ‘nudge’) in UK health policy. The analysis shows how the surrounding order of discourse provides the conditions for individualistic, consumerist policy interventions. Aimed at children, the ‘Change4Life’ anti-obesity social marketing campaign simplifies and distorts expert obesity knowledge, while pathologising the lifestyles of the working classes. Through warnings of biomedical disease risk and commercially endorsed behaviour change slogans, children are inculcated into active, self-disciplinary citizenship. The increasing popularity of nudge among state actors lies in its comfortable fit with neoliberal ideology, privatising and individualising responsibility for welfare. I question its claims to ‘empower’ citizens by changing their lifestyle preferences and argue that instead its offers governments a way of ignoring socioeconomic inequality. The 2017 award of the Nobel prize to nudge theorist Richard Thaler signals the extent of its influence in contemporary governance. In this paper I offer a conceptual framework with which to critically engage with it.
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Papers by Jane M Mulderrig