Causal Layered Analysis of Policy Enactment in Elementary Schools: Designing Alternative Scenarios with an Emphasis on Qualitative-Descriptive Evaluation

The present study is based on the theory of policy enactment and its purpose is to analyze layer by layer the reasons for policy enactment in Iranian primary schools to design alternative scenarios. To achieve this goal, the method of causal layer analysis has been used. In this way, the phenomenon of policy enactment was analyzed and deepened in four layers. The study population in this study are actors who are involved in the enactment of qualitative-descriptive evaluation policy. To find the participants, non-random snowball sampling method was used. MAXQDA 2018 software was also used for data analysis. Results at the Lithuanian level, Iranian students have failed to achieve a global average in international exams over the past two decades. At the level of the social system, human factors and cultural, economic and political contexts play an important role in policy enactment, which is not taken into account. At the worldview and discourse level, the paradigm of reductionism prevails in policy-making. At the level of myths and metaphors, policy-making is a conventional and generative metaphor that plays an important role in the linear implementation of policies. Based on the analysis and deepening of the four layers above, alternative policy enactment scenarios were designed and presented for each layer. Language does not just describe reality; Rather, it shapes reality. The use of the metaphor of development and policy enactment in language can play an important role in the success of policies. Thus, the adoption of politics is a complex, creative, intertwined, contextual and political process in which language and metaphor play a vital role but have received less attention.