ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Part 2 of this book, which focuses on approaches to policy analysis using human participants. Participant-based research in education policy is understood as that in which participants are either a sole or core focus, considering relationships between policy texts and policy actors, and/or experiences of policy actors themselves. This chapter outlines the most common approaches to participant-based research in policy studies, which is frequently undertaken via methods such as interviews or (less frequently) surveys. Core conceptual considerations are then discussed, in particular the relationship between policy texts and policy actors and who or what constitutes a ‘participant’. Alongside these discussions, the chapters in Part 2 are also introduced, which variously explore network ethnography, actor-network theory, materiality in education policy, Institutional Ethnography, decolonising approaches to curriculum policy research, working with children and young people, and researching policy elites.
