So, What Is Policy, Anyway?

So, What Is Policy, Anyway?From our first days in the classroom to the end of our careers, education policy shapes all aspects of our work as educators.Beginning with the hiring policies that regulate the recruitment and appointment of teachers, continuing with the curriculum and assessment policies that guide classroom instruction and concluding with the retirement policies that frame professional departures, policies underpin each stage of our careers.Despite their pervasive impact, policies often remain invisible to educators until a policy disrupts their daily routines, adds to their workloads and/or challenges their core beliefs and values.Sudden policy changes and major policy reforms may provoke considerable consternation and uncertainty, especially given the increasing number of competing policy demands placed on teachers and educational leaders today.Each of us has vivid memories of our first major encounter with education policy.On her first day on the job as a newly minted Speech-Language Pathologist, one of the authors of this book (Monica Williams) was asked by the Superintendent of Schools of a large rural school board to establish this new service by creating an operating budget, purchasing supplies and equipment, and drafting a school board policy and supporting procedures.This baptism by fire marked the beginning of a long career in educational leadership that centred on the development, implementation and reform of an ever-expanding network of school, school board and provincial policies for special education and inclusive education.For another author (David Young), policy, at least in the practical sense, became readily apparent during his stint as a student teacher.From policies around accepting late submissions to after-school supervision, it seemed as though everything teachers could or could not do was regulated, at least to a degree, by some type of policy.While this author recognized that policies were vital to ensuring that disparate parties to the educational enterprise remained on the same page and teaching and learning operated smoothly, there was also a gradual realization that some policies can be ineffective, leading to barriers associated with interpretation, understanding and co-operation.Because of this early experience, this author has spent much of his career examining how policies can be used as a legitimate vehicle to improve education.According to a third author (Robert White), he recounts an experience in high school that centred upon attendance policies.Unfortunately, this author firmly

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