| Education is an often contested area of public policy with competing conceptions of its value and purpose. The public policy process is value-laden, political, and embedded in a particular context. Policies are often reflections of policymakers' values, and these values provide a window into the culture of the policy environment. Utilizing Elazar's typology of political culture, the researcher proposed to examine to what extent, if any, the political culture in Louisiana influenced policymaking in K-12 education.;The researcher used a qualitative cross-case, constant comparative design to examine the policy narratives of the state superintendents of education across two systemic reform periods, the Standards and Stabilization Era (1908-1940) and the Standards and Accountability Era (1988-2010). Using purposive sampling, the researcher identified fifty-two policy narratives of the state superintendents of education. Multiple methods of analysis were utilized to examine the types of state level policy actors engaged in the policy process, what educational issues were perceived by policy actors as important, how policy actors framed education issues and potential solutions, other policy actors, and the policy environment, and how policy actors, issues, and perceptions may or may not have changed over time. Content and discourse analyses were conducted, using NVIVO, a qualitative analysis software program.;The researcher found that across both systemic reform periods Louisiana's educational system was highly centralized at the state level, and the types of official policy actors involved in the policy process, the policy values, and policy goals were persistent. The researcher concluded that the similarities between these eras pointed to cultural influences that persisted over time. |
