Emerging discourses within the English ‘choice advice’ policy network

Abstract

This paper examines regulating discourses ‘spoken’ within the complex multi‐sector network of educational policy and provision that has grown from a recent introduction of choice advisers in England. Choice advice documentation from across the network is examined and four discursive themes are identified: equity; parental responsibility; independence/impartiality; and realism. The paper suggests that choice advice – as an English policy case illustrating broader social and political trends – superficially promotes empowerment for disadvantaged parents with a depoliticised, managerial approach while disempowering them by diverting attention away from wider stratification and shifting responsibility for educational quality away from the state