Policy discourses and socially situated participation in education

This paper discusses how participation in education has been affected by current
educational policy assumptions that emphasise rational, cognitive decision-making
and individual choice within an economistic discourse. It draws on a study of
students participating in a ‘health issues in the community’ programme (reported on
in Allan and Tett, 2005) to explore both how policy changes have influenced
provision and how the subjective experience of engaging in education is bound up
with other life events and experiences.