Constructions of choice in U.S. education policy discourse, 1994–2020: a corpus-assisted analysis.

This study uses corpus-assisted discourse analysis to investigate the way U.S. secretaries of education have discursively constructed the topic of school choice in their public speeches over the course of 27 years, spanning four presidential administrations (1994–2020). Collocation and concordance a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education Vol. 46; no. 5; pp. 659 - 675
Autor principal: Cohen, Michael
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Oct2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=188477861&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 188477861
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        01596306
        54J
      jtl: Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education
      issn: 01596306
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Oct2025
      vid: 46
      iid: 5
      pid: 377
      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
    artinfo:
      ui:
        188477861
        10.1080/01596306.2025.2451864
      ppf: 659
      ppct: 16
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 376KB
      tig:
        atl: Constructions of choice in U.S. education policy discourse, 1994–2020: a corpus-assisted analysis.
      aug:
        au: Cohen, Michael
        affil: Department of Leadership, Policy, and Development, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, USA
      su:
        School choice
        Discourse analysis
        Education policy
        Political oratory
        Educational change
        Philosophy of education
        Neoliberalism
        United States
      sug:
        subj:
          United States
          School choice
          Discourse analysis
          Education policy
          Political oratory
          Educational change
          Philosophy of education
          Neoliberalism
      keyword:
        corpus-assisted discourse analysis
        education policy
        marketization
        political discourse
      ab: This study uses corpus-assisted discourse analysis to investigate the way U.S. secretaries of education have discursively constructed the topic of school choice in their public speeches over the course of 27 years, spanning four presidential administrations (1994–2020). Collocation and concordance analyses reveal a series of evolving discursive constructions: a public institutional frame favoring the prevailing logic of public schooling; an overtly neoliberal frame touting free markets, consumerism, and accountability for public systems; a depoliticized and technocratic neoliberal frame emphasizing high performance; and a populist, anti-institutional frame advocating choice as an end in itself. This study demonstrates how the language of school choice can tell us much about ideological trends in education reform. In particular, the analyses reveal an erosion of concern for the publicness of public schooling in federal school choice discourse.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education
      holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2025
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N