Penn, Play, Pandemic, and Pathway Policy A Critical Discourse Study Examining: Compulsory Education Equity and Access

Open Access
- Author:
- Mahoney-Ferster, Mary
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 07, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Edgar Yoder, Committee Member & Related Areas Repres
Dana Stuchul, Committee Member & Major Field Represnt
Jamie Myers, Committee Member & Major Field Represnt
Michael Patte, Committee Member & Special Represent
James Johnson, Chair & Major Field Represnt
Kimberly Anne Powell, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies - Keywords:
- early care and education
policy
transitons to school
compulsory education
equity and access
equity-based pathway programs
pathway into school
kindergarten
family engagement
Educational Continuum - Abstract:
- Whether rich in culture, steep in history, governed by policy, or based on research and technology, around the globe there are pathways from home into the formal education system. In Pennsylvania children ages 6-21 have the right to a free public education. Along the way some families have access to equity-based programs, which by design help establish a pathway to equal educational opportunity. But what does that mean? Understanding the programming begins with understanding the policy. In an effort to clarify the ways representations of policy and practice impact meaning, this study explored the policy pathway systems of Pennsylvania. Employing Fairclough’s Textually Oriented Discourse Analysis (TODA) methodology, a corpus of policy expressions of equity and access were identified and categorized. A three-dimensional analysis process evaluated the policy discourse text, discursive practices, and social practices to establish: What is “it”? – The description. What did or does “it” do? – The explanation. And why does “what it does” matter to me? – The interpretation. What I found was a pathway containing hierarchical, decentralized, stratified, parallel policy which included equity-based programs. When provided and where available, the equity-based policy was designed to offer criteria eligible populations equal educational opportunity programming and resources which required attendance to maintain eligibility. Inevitably, all roads of this pathway led to the required mandatory participation for free, or for a fee, in an educational system at the optional, or non-optional, age of five or the compulsory age of six, through age eighteen, under legal penalty for noncompliance. Again, I ask, what does this mean? Hundreds of laws, thousands of rules and regulations, combined with a myriad of contextual factors, resulting in infinite interpretive possibilities, leading to…one wicked problem.