Policy Research and Policy Theory: a comment on Fitz and Halpin1

Abstract

This short paper was produced in response to David Halpin and John Fitz's ‘Researching Grant Maintained Schools’, which is seen as indicative of a trend within education policy research towards the accumulation of detailed case study and the relative neglect of theoretical analysis. The different ‐ and sometimes conflicting ‐ research traditions in education policy are briefly summarized, and the factors contributing to the encouragement of pluralist approaches discussed. The paper concludes by arguing the case for analysis of education policy from within a state‐centred perspective, in combination with detailed investigation of policy implementation.