Towards a view of policy analysis as practical reason

This paper presents a philosophical critique of the widely accepted ‘technological’ conception of policy analysis in education. With the use of a Wittgensteinian understanding of language, it is argued that the assumptions upon which the technological conception is based are fundamentally mistaken. In particular it is argued that the fact‐value distinction is epistemologically incoherent, and that questions of moral value, which lie at the heart of all educational problems, can be rationally debated and assessed, and that they therefore should be regarded as integeral to educational policy analysis. With this philosophical undergrowth cleared, we can now work towards formulating a view of policy analysis as practical reason.