Abstract
The aim of this first part of two introduction chapters is to discuss features of critical studies of educational policy within the broader field of policy studies and in relation to sociological, political and philosophical research on education. The point of departure is the so-called “policy orientation” in social research, and the emergence of policy analysis and its concern within the welfare state. The sphere and genre of critical educational policy studies at the beginning of the 1980s was mainly rooted in sociological, historical, and political research on education, that is, the research tradition interested in the power, politics and (social) regulation in and around schools. Echoing the term “policy orientation”, we want to introduce the notion critical education policy orientation to describe the distinctive scope of critical education policy studies. In this chapter we will not present either detailed definitions of and illuminating linkages between the main concepts in research traditions nor exhaustive overviews and final accounts of perspectives, theories and methods. The aim instead is to offer some general overviews of approaches and discussions for the purpose of bringing some matters of concern in the diversity of studies critically oriented towards educational policy to the foreground.