ABSTRACT
The President of the John Templeton Foundation, Dr. Jack Templeton, first used the word 'entrepreneurial' in relation to research at a discussion with the author over breakfast in London's Royal Over-Seas League Club in May 2005. The author understood policy entrepreneurship as a process by which research, policy and practice become more closely connected. It is also about making a contribution to policy agenda setting through the production of new ideas that emerge from research which is then made accessible and intelligible to the public, professionals and policy makers. Policy makers increasingly like to present their policy positions from an 'evidence base' rather than simply from their political intuition or belief. Academic models of how policy is actually made in government can be unrealistic in practice, as they often follow a distinct stage theory. Many educationalists examine educational policy against normative criteria, such as their advocacy of social justice and student empowerment.
