Constructions of choice in U.S. education policy discourse, 1994–2020
A corpus-assisted analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11229435 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Cohen (0000-0002-1288-4718, University of Northern Colorado, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1-16 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01596306.2025.2451864 |
| OpenAlex | W4406242451 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 27 |
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
Accountability · Consumerism · Content analysis · Critical discourse analysis · Discourse analysis · Frame analysis · Ideology · Linguistics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Public opinion · School choice · Social science · Sociology · Technocracy · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Public Administration · School Choice and Performance
Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis
Neoliberalism and the Global Restructuring of Knowledge and Education
Durability and debate
The current landscape of school choice in the United States
Collocations in context
The hegemony of inclusion
Urban Education Policy under Obama
Social Construction Is Racial Construction
Governing Quality in Teacher Education
School Choice and the Empowerment Imperative
Framing school choice and merit
Brief History of Neoliberalism
School Choice as Community Disempowerment
Assessing No Child Left Behind and the Rise of Neoliberal Education Policies
Text as Data
Buzzwords, blends and branding
Defining diversity
Educational neoliberalization
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |