"Educational Policy": Semantic Content of the Term

Abstract

Yelena Penskaya, D.Sc. in Philology, Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Head of the Literature Department, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: e.penskaya@hse.ru
Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.

This article analyzes how frequently the term ‘educational policy’ is used in printed media and online resources. Appearance of this term in discussion and information fields had two major circumstances in the background: a concentration of reform measures brought to spotlight by media; splashes of public debates, whether spontaneous or initiated by stakeholders.

The paper shows how the frequency of using the term has been changing over the past decades. It became widespread in the early 1990s as denoting consistent education reform measures and has been subject to a number of semantic changes throughout the last 20 years, developing into a cliché. In 2010, this forgotten cliché was back in Russian sociocultural vocabulary, having acquired additional valence over the past few years.

The author also investigates the meaning implied by this concept in journalistic texts, in particular in Obrazovatelnaya Politikaand Svobodnaya Mysljournals and in two collections of essays on history of education in Russia published in 2012. She suggests that frequency of use and semantics of the ‘educational policy’ cliché are the tools that help trace and analyze the nature and evolution of relations between authorities and the society. Quite naturally, this term is never mentioned in any projects, guides or monographs created for teaching purposes.