ABSTRACT
In the past fifteen years education policy-makers have focused on changing the culture of schools. They have attempted to do this in three ways: the development of new structures for managing schools (both within and without); the establishment of consumerist and state control mechanisms of accountability (Kogan, 1986); and the endorsement of different arrangements for teaching and learning. Original intentions, however, rarely mirror eventual outcomes. Though the policy process is frequently understood as a one-way flow from centre to periphery in which a set of policies is conveyed along the chain and implemented, it i s be t te r thought of as f rac tured , d is loca ted , only occas ional ly exhibi t ing a l inear form. At every s tage-primary, secondary or recontextualising (Bernstein, 1985)—policy texts are worked on and undergo change.
