Membership categorization analysis for education policy

Abstract

Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) is a language-based approach that provides unique insight into education policy research. At its most basic, MCA is concerned with identifying the patterns with which individuals or organizations develop categorizations. Such information can allow education policy researchers to hypothesize about the effectiveness of policy, adapt policies to the particular constraints of the culture, or assess how policies change cultural categorization. This chapter illustrates the usefulness of MCA for education policy. The chapter analyzes the way different educational organizations in Bangladesh with differing degrees of international connectedness construct the category teacher.