What is policy? In search of frameworks and definitions for non-Western contexts

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of the definition of ‘policy’ that can be used in researching educational transformations in non-Western contexts. It begins with an overview of major debates in policy sociology including the conceptualisations of policy as process, policy as text and discourse. It then moves on to discuss the models of policy-making articulated in social and political science disciplines. The factors influencing policy-making beyond the realm of the nation-state and the shifts in education policy in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries are considered next. It concludes with reflection on the concept of ‘dissimulation’, which is vital to understanding the complexities of non-Western contexts which existing (i.e. Western) theories of policy-making do not take into account.