How Policy Happens: Understanding the decisions that shape our education systems
Autor Loic Menziesen Limba Engleză Paperback – 6 mai 2026
Stop treating education like a political football! Think long term! Follow the evidence!
Calls like these echo across society. Yet governments continue to swerve, u-turn and spit decisions out as if at random. Policy-making therefore remains an impenetrable black box to those who live with the consequences.
This book opens up that black box. It shows how policy really gets made — not in tidy theories or ministerial press lines, but in time-pressured collisions between convictions, evidence and conflicting demands. Each chapter takes a real episode from the last four decades of education reform — from grammar schools and academisation, to curriculum and funding — and uses it to uncover one of the funnels or forces that pushes policy down a particular track.
Combining anecdotes from the corridors of power with academic theory, and extensive interviews with senior policy-makers and former ministers, this book offers an engaging but rigorous account of how ideas become decisions.
'How Policy Happens: Understanding the decisions that shape our education system' will be an eye-opening read for anyone interested in how government's cogs turn, and is an essential guide for professionals working in the education and policy sectors including teachers, civil servants, politicians and academics.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781032230207
ISBN-10: 1032230207
Pagini: 184
Ilustrații: 6
Dimensiuni: 174 x 246 mm
Ediția:1
Editura: Taylor & Francis
Colecția Routledge
Locul publicării:Oxford, United Kingdom
ISBN-10: 1032230207
Pagini: 184
Ilustrații: 6
Dimensiuni: 174 x 246 mm
Ediția:1
Editura: Taylor & Francis
Colecția Routledge
Locul publicării:Oxford, United Kingdom
Public țintă
Professional ReferenceCuprins
Acknowledgements Dramatis Personae Chronology 1. Stumbling through the black box 2. What is Policy? 3. History 4. The Government Machine 5. The Polycentric State 6. Evidence and Expertise 7. Ideas, narratives and the zeitgeist 8. Funnels and Freedom 9. Cracking Open the Black Box of Policy Making: A methodological postscript
Recenzii
'How policy is made is one of the questions I am still asked and I am never sure that I give a satisfactory answer. It is a neither science or art but a combination of relationships and influences. Loic Menzies captures this complexity and explores it in a way that will be both comprehensible and recognisable to readers. It is a fast-moving and engaging account of the interface between education and politics. As such, it will enlighten as well as entertain. Anything that improves our understanding of how policy is made, contributes greatly to education and indeed to democracy. 'How Policy Happens' does just that .'
- Baroness Estelle Morris of Yardley, Former Secretary of State for Education
'Loic Menzies offers a fascinating insider’s account of policymaking aided by a wealth of references to policy science concepts. Menzies has the unusual ability to use a variety of policy theories, real world experience, and interviews with high profile policymakers to produce new knowledge on policymaking. Menzies takes us on a truly engaging journey through UK education policy reform, providing far wider lessons for UK policy and beyond.’
– Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of Sterling
‘The book I’d wish I’d read before becoming General Secretary! Loic pulls back the curtain to give us a glimpse behind the walls of Whitehall, into the world of ‘Realpolitik’ where the interconnected corridors of coalitions and collisions of convictions finally come together to construct policy. The truth behind the complex spiders web of a world where educational policy is created in government.’
- Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders
‘An engaging read, full of insight into the policy process.’
- Sir Michael Barber, author of How to Run a Government
‘Loic Menzies lays bare education’s political theatre. New ministers may dream of building a Singapore on the Thames, but Menzies reminds us that the bedrock beneath Westminster will always define the skyline. Beneath the noise of slogans and soundbites, he uncovers the slow tectonic movements that truly shape policy — a rare combination of sharp analysis, empathy, and wit. Wonderful reading for anyone trying to change a system that resists being changed.’
- John Hattie, Melbourne Laureate Professor Emeritus
‘An incredibly valuable guide to how policy really gets made, taking the reader into the heart of the decision-making process, plus plenty of insight into education reforms of the past few decades.’
– Sam Freedman, author of Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It
‘All those interested in the history and present of policymaking structures within the education field will find this book of real value. The insights into the contradictions, the vagaries of decision-making and the lack of collective memory bring alive the “Yes, Minister” world of Westminster, Whitehall and beyond.’
- Lord David Blunkett, Former Secretary of State for Education
- Baroness Estelle Morris of Yardley, Former Secretary of State for Education
'Loic Menzies offers a fascinating insider’s account of policymaking aided by a wealth of references to policy science concepts. Menzies has the unusual ability to use a variety of policy theories, real world experience, and interviews with high profile policymakers to produce new knowledge on policymaking. Menzies takes us on a truly engaging journey through UK education policy reform, providing far wider lessons for UK policy and beyond.’
– Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of Sterling
‘The book I’d wish I’d read before becoming General Secretary! Loic pulls back the curtain to give us a glimpse behind the walls of Whitehall, into the world of ‘Realpolitik’ where the interconnected corridors of coalitions and collisions of convictions finally come together to construct policy. The truth behind the complex spiders web of a world where educational policy is created in government.’
- Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders
‘An engaging read, full of insight into the policy process.’
- Sir Michael Barber, author of How to Run a Government
‘Loic Menzies lays bare education’s political theatre. New ministers may dream of building a Singapore on the Thames, but Menzies reminds us that the bedrock beneath Westminster will always define the skyline. Beneath the noise of slogans and soundbites, he uncovers the slow tectonic movements that truly shape policy — a rare combination of sharp analysis, empathy, and wit. Wonderful reading for anyone trying to change a system that resists being changed.’
- John Hattie, Melbourne Laureate Professor Emeritus
‘An incredibly valuable guide to how policy really gets made, taking the reader into the heart of the decision-making process, plus plenty of insight into education reforms of the past few decades.’
– Sam Freedman, author of Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It
‘All those interested in the history and present of policymaking structures within the education field will find this book of real value. The insights into the contradictions, the vagaries of decision-making and the lack of collective memory bring alive the “Yes, Minister” world of Westminster, Whitehall and beyond.’
- Lord David Blunkett, Former Secretary of State for Education
Notă biografică
Loic Menzies is founding Chief Executive of England’s Centre for Education and Youth (CfEY) and has spent the last ten years at the heart of education policy, working closely with ministerial advisors and civil servants to provide evidence-informed advice.
Descriere
Combining anecdotes from the corridors of power with academic theory, this book offers an engaging but rigorous account of how ideas become decisions.
'How Policy Happens' is an essential guide for professionals working in the education and policy sectors including teachers, civil servants, politicians and academics.
'How Policy Happens' is an essential guide for professionals working in the education and policy sectors including teachers, civil servants, politicians and academics.