A journey into silence: Students, stakeholders and the impact of a strategic governmental policy document in the UK
Authors: Sinfield, S., Holley, D. and Burns, T.
Journal: Social Responsibility Journal
Volume: 5
Issue: 4
Pages: 566-574
eISSN: 1758-857X
ISSN: 1747-1117
DOI: 10.1108/17471110910995401
Abstract:Purpose In the UK, higher education (HE) is being positioned as the new global business, and the power relations between its various stakeholders – society, the business community, management, staff, students – makes this not only uncharted, but also contested ground. This paper aims to map the new terrain with a focus on, and analysis of, one key government policy document: The Harnessing Technology (2005). Design/methodology/approach Critical theory and textual analysis are used to research and analyse power relations as inscribed in policy discourse – the structures, the language, and the voices. The document is explored particularly in relation to its impact on prime stakeholders within the new contexts of today's HE; a HE that is embracing information communications technology (elearning) – “for business”. Findings Harnessing Technology boasts a heteroglossia and the capturing of many authentic voices in its composition which should open up a dialogic between its stakeholders; in fact power is revealed as refined, unified – deferring to centralised authority. Textual analysis reveals HE as a journey into silence for the student as stakeholder, where the voices that are not repressed are those with economic and institutional power. This analysis shows the student is constructed as either silent or deficit and the conclusions suggest that rather than a discourse of transformation, “regulation not education”, is the real goal of the dominant educational stakeholders. Originality/value The critical approach to policy analysis in the paper can be adapted by others seeking to critique policy in a variety of different policy contexts. This is particularly significant where policy is not interrogated, but where nevertheless it influences institutional mission statements and the seepage pollutes practice. © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/23486/
Source: Scopus
A journey into silence: students, stakeholders and the impact of a strategic Governmental Policy Document in the UK
Authors: Burns, T., Sinfield, S. and Holley, D.
Editors: Crowther, D.
Journal: Social Responsibility Journal
Volume: 5
Issue: 4
Pages: 566-574
Publisher: Emerald
ISSN: 1747-1117
DOI: 10.1108/17471110910995401
Abstract:For our analysis we draw upon Macherey’s essay ‘The text says what is does not say’ (in Walder 1990) where he argues for the legitimacy of interrogating a text for ‘what it tacitly implies, what it does not say … for in order to say anything there are things which must not be said’ (Ibid 217, his italics). As with society, all works have their margins – the incompleteness that reveals their birth and production … ‘ What is important in the work is what it does not say … what the work cannot say … because there the elaboration of the utterances is acted out in a sort of journey to silence’ (Ibid 218).
Our critical analysis of the Government e-learning strategy (2005) reveals that rather than harnessing technology to empower the typically disenfranchised within the educational debate, it is those very stakeholders at the margins who are silenced whilst the interests of those with institutional and economic power are given voice.
Our analysis will show that rather than creating a stakeholder society, Government through its policy documents positions the already disempowered as either silent or deficit and our conclusions suggest that rather than a discourse of transformation, ‘regulation not education’ (Lillis 2001), is the real goal of the dominant stakeholders.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/23486/
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/17471110910995401
Source: Manual
A journey into silence: students, stakeholders and the impact of a strategic Governmental Policy Document in the UK.
Authors: Burns, T., Sinfield, S. and Holley, D.
Journal: Social Responsibility Journal
Volume: 5
Issue: 4
Pages: 566-574
ISSN: 1747-1117
Abstract:For our analysis we draw upon Macherey’s essay ‘The text says what is does not say’ (in Walder 1990) where he argues for the legitimacy of interrogating a text for ‘what it tacitly implies, what it does not say … for in order to say anything there are things which must not be said’ (Ibid 217, his italics). As with society, all works have their margins – the incompleteness that reveals their birth and production … ‘ What is important in the work is what it does not say … what the work cannot say … because there the elaboration of the utterances is acted out in a sort of journey to silence’ (Ibid 218). Our critical analysis of the Government e-learning strategy (2005) reveals that rather than harnessing technology to empower the typically disenfranchised within the educational debate, it is those very stakeholders at the margins who are silenced whilst the interests of those with institutional and economic power are given voice. Our analysis will show that rather than creating a stakeholder society, Government through its policy documents positions the already disempowered as either silent or deficit and our conclusions suggest that rather than a discourse of transformation, ‘regulation not education’ (Lillis 2001), is the real goal of the dominant stakeholders.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/23486/
Source: BURO EPrints