Jokers’ pursuit of truth: critical policy analysis in the age of spectacle and post-truth politics

ABSTRACT

Critical policy analysis examining how powerful actors use educational policies to reproduce unequal social structures presents many challenges. These challenges are amplified by the politics of spectacle, where duplicity comes to dominate how educational policies are conceptualized, presented to the public, and subsequently enacted. The pursuit of truth in policy proposals or reform designs often entails navigating contentious spaces of fiction-making, fakery, and duplicitous performances, sometimes involving researchers themselves. Drawing on Bakhtin’s writing on jokers’ pursuit of truth, I revisit the tensions I encountered in my ethnographic fieldwork in the Russian Federation to reimagine the possibilities of navigating research with the powerful. This paper offers a methodological provocation to rethink ethical imperatives and poses new questions for reimaging the problematics of critical policy analysis focused on equity and justice in the post-truth era.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical policy analysis
• ethnography
• post-truth
• political spectacle

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All geographic and personal names are pseudonyms to protect participants’ confidentiality.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Elena Aydarova

Dr. Elena Aydarova is an Assistant Professor of Social Foundations at Auburn University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines global neoliberal transformations in education through the lens of equity, diversity, and social justice. Dr. Aydarova’s book ‘Teacher Education Reform as Political Theater: Russian Policy Dramas’ (2019 with SUNY Press) examines the theatricality of educational policy and the reorientation of educational systems at the service of global corporate sector. She is a recipient of an American Fellowship from the American Association of University Women, Concha Delgado Gaitan Presidential Fellowship from the Council of Anthropology and Education, and the Longview Foundation Global Teacher Education Fellowship.