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0:00
My name is Helen Gunter,
and I'm Professor
of Education Policy
at the University of Manchester
in the UK.
0:08
When we want
to think about study
and examine consulting
in the public sector,
we need to look at
the way in which the State,
when it constructs
public policy,
draws on particular
kinds of knowledge
and particular kinds of knowers.
I've been studying this
and experiencing it
professionally for
the last 35 years.
I began life as
a school teacher,
moved into higher education,
and now I undertake research
that examines
the role of professionals.
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Let's look at the issue
of what it means
to examine consulting
in the public sector.
For example, you could
look at a policy statement,
something like a green
paper or a white paper,
or you might listen
to a ministerial speech.
And we need to think
about the knowledge
that's been drawn on
to frame the ideas
and the processes
that are outlined.
It's very clear in regard to
what is known as
public sector services
in the post World War II world,
and there's been a huge change
in the knowledge claims,
that is the types of knowledge
in the ways in which
people within the public sector
have justified their decisions
on what they intend to do.
And people tend to have
very clear preferences
for certain types of knowledge
and they tend to privilege
particular kinds of knowers,
as I call them.
I once recall a professor
who'd been appointed
into government
to lead a major change,
returning from a meeting
in the Cabinet Office
where he espoused how
ministers and civil servants
expected research to be
turned around in six weeks,
and then communicated
in a few slides
using bullet points.
This of course is very
different to the world
in which many of us inhabit,
even those of us
who are consultants
would probably want
to inquire into something
for longer than six weeks,
and we'd want to talk about it
in ways other than a few slides.
