Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Congressional Coalitions: A Discourse Network Analysis Of Congressional Hearings For The Every Student Succeeds Act, Yinying Wang

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to investigate policy coalitions of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) at U.S. congressional hearings. This study is grounded in the advocacy coalition framework, which argues that advocacy coalitions are forged by policy actors who have similar policy preferences. To identify the coalitions, according to the policy claims articulated by policy actors, discourse network analysis was performed to examine 30 testimonies in the congressional hearings on ESSA since its passage in 2015. The policy actors fall into eight categories: (1) federal administrative and executive offices, (2) state administrative and executive offices, (3) teachers unions, …