Looking into the Black Box of Teacher Education Policymaking in the U.S. A network analysis of stakeholder engagement in the development of state ESSA Title II plans

Abstract

While interest in influencing policymaking in teacher education has moved beyond politicians and policymakers to a wider range of actors, little is known about stakeholders who are involved in the policymaking process and how they interact with each other. This multiple case study employed a mixed-method approach to examining the engagement and collaboration of organizational stakeholders in developing teacher education policy in six states in the United States and analyzed the formation and dynamics of policy networks in U.S. teacher education policy. Quantitative social network analysis (SNA) was performed to construct policy networks of stakeholders involved in the development of state Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title II plans and to investigate whether distinct coalitions emerged in the planning process. This was followed by qualitative, semi-structured narrative interviews to examine the stakeholders' engagement in the policymaking process. The quantitative analysis identified different patterns among the six states in terms of the kind of stakeholders involved in their respective state ESSA Title II plan development, the overall structure of the policy networks constituted by these stakeholders as policy actors, and the ways in which policy actors within the policy network interacted and collaborated with one another. Narratives of selected policy stakeholders revealed that they came to the ESSA Title II policy-making work from a variety of personal and professional backgrounds and were driven by very different motivations. As a result, they shared different accounts about how they perceived their engagement experiences, their interactions with other members in the policy networks, and their views of the final policy outcomes. This study contributes to the field by addressing the intersection of policy network analysis, teacher education policy development, and the theories of policymaking and decision-making. It is among the first studies to apply SNA methods to investigate the impact of policy networks on the policymaking process in the field of teacher education. It also is one of the few existing studies that identify policy coalitions in education policy networks. Additionally, it has expanded our understandings of education policy-making by situating the analysis within a broader body of theoretical perspectives.