ABSTRACT
Educational policy-making is always already entangled within complex webs of political power and competing visions of society. While policy can open up some possibilities for more desirable material realities, education policy can also be weaponized as a punitive tool to discipline educators, close schools and reinforce the most dehumanizing aspects of schooling. A policy agenda that is transformational requires an ambitious imagination in partnership with technical prowess and the spirit for political struggle. Educational policies are embedded within larger political processes, conjunctures, conflicts and struggles for power. Educational research too often has been narrowly focused on the United States while not recognizing how educational policy is shaped not only by domestic issues but also by currents that transcend the artificial boundaries of modern nation-states. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
