This course aims to develop a comprehensive and critical perspective on educational policy in Australian school systems and to gauge their affects on schools and classrooms.
Educational policy-making is examined through processes of policy antecedents, development, implementation and evaluation, its multiple agents and the international, national, and state structures through which they act.

Key models of policy development are evaluated and methods of policy analysis applied. Case studies of selected current education policy initiatives are used to ground these perspectives and consider underlying policy issues such as agency, contestation, legitimation, globalization, accountability, evidence and effectiveness.