Democratic Shortfalls in Privatized Curriculum Policy Production: Silencing the ‘Potted Plants' and Politicizing ‘Quick Fixes’ | Zendy

Laura Elizabeth Pinto | Zendy

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Democratic Shortfalls in Privatized Curriculum Policy Production: Silencing the ‘Potted Plants' and Politicizing ‘Quick Fixes’

Author(s) -

Laura Elizabeth Pinto

Publication year - 2012

Publication title -

policy futures in education

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574

H-Index - 16

ISSN - 1478-2103

DOI - 10.2304/pfie.2012.10.2.142

Subject(s) - democracy , curriculum , public administration , production (economics) , bidding , government (linguistics) , process (computing) , public policy , economics , sociology , political science , public relations , politics , business , marketing , economic growth , law , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , macroeconomics , operating system

Democratic policy production requires the input of citizen voices, ideally through a process that actively engages a broad range of stakeholders in decision-making. This article describes Ontario's curriculum policy formulation process during the 1990s, based on archival documents and interviews with 16 policy actors. The privatization of curriculum policy production resulted in a politicized environment that silenced citizens' voices. Though contracting writers through a bidding process allowed the government to produce a vast amount of policy in a relatively short period of time, findings reveal how policy actors' roles were reduced to ‘potted plants' charged with carrying out a predetermined agenda rather than active participants in a robust democratic process.

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