The election of a (minority) nationalist government in Scotland in May 2007 raised questions about the ways in which nationalism might be used as a resource in policy-making by the new government. Would the SNP government try to create support for its policies by connecting to national sentiment? Education is an area of policy which has been used in the past in many countries to promote national identity. However, today most students of education policy believe that the strongest influence on it is not the nation but the needs of the global knowledge economy, producing a shared policy agenda with an emphasis on competitiveness, skill development and employability.

The SNP government has a defining aim of independence for Scotland. It does not accept that political devolution introduced by the UK government in 1999 is a permanent solution to issues of representation and governance of the constituent nations of the UK. However, it currently functions within that devolved UK system, where tendencies to difference among the constituent nations have perhaps been heightened by shifting party political control-these differences were less apparent when the Labour party controlled both the UK government and the devolved Scottish administration. The UK government is very strongly committed to the knowledge economy agenda for education. So in addition to exploring the significance of nationalism for education, we also saw the opportunity to explore the extent to which Scottish government policy in education might or might not depart from UK agendas in the context of a global recession and a strong emphasis on global economic needs. This gave us three layers of enquiry: the nationalist government agenda, its relation to the UK, and its relation to wider global influences.

Finally, the SNP government is a minority government, and is thus obliged to govern through building consensus, placating opposition and mobilising support. It cannot easily pass large amounts of legislation, and its working methods are more focused on building new relations with its ‘partners’ within and beyond government. This marks a shift in governing style in Scotland, and indeed highlights the importance of ‘style’-or rather what we have called ‘discourse’: that is ways in which texts (including speech) are used to promote policy aims and agendas by the SNP government. Nationalism appears to be a key resource for such discursive work, but it is also not a straightforward one. We were interested in how nationalism was used in governing in this particular context.

In a short research project of only nine months from September 2008-April 2009, we could not examine all the possible policy developments and their effects. Instead we focused on the ‘discourse’ of nationalism in education policy. By this we mean the ways in which ideas –especially ideas of 'the nation' were deployed and referenced in making education policy in Scotland. This included looking at how the key priorities for education were described, how problems were characterised, and how the future was imagined in policy texts, speeches and debates, and through interviews with 29 key informants who were senior policy makers in the Scottish government, members of the previous administration, civil servants, members of the wider education policy community and representatives of the media. We examined policy texts in detail, analysing key terms and the ways in which they appeared-for example the clusters of terms in which they were placed, and with which they were being associated. So, for example, while we found considerable reference to wealth (as in wealth creation-a key knowledge economy goal) this was partnered by ‘fairness’ so that the terms were used in relation to one another. Our analysis of such clustering suggested that the SNP government was using particular kinds of ‘internal’ referencing, that appealed to historically-embedded assumptions about Scotland (as a fair society), so that wealth and its pursuit were endorsed and supported, but not as an individualistic agenda and with attention to its distribution. We carried out similar analysis for a range of concepts and clusters of concepts such as nation/national interest//economy/fairness/ and equality, justice, social democracy, and accountability. The interaction between those (frequently occurring) terms was examined, in relation to specific policy issues.

These were:
* assessment of international competitiveness,
* support for young people with low or no qualifications,
* performance management in local government and
* higher education policy.

We also explored references to other nations and systems, to see how Scotland was positioned through comparisons with selected systems.

In summary, we were looking for evidence of the mobilisation of a discourse of ‘modernised’ nationalism, rather than references to historically-shaped ideas of nationalism, that generally have to do with place and hostility to ‘others’.

We found:

(1) There were significant uses of what we termed ‘modernised nationalism’ in that ideas of the ‘nation’, which are already implicit in much education discourse, have been altered through a simultaneous process of ‘inward’ referencing of ideas of fairness and equality, combined with ‘outward referencing’ which places Scotland in alignment with new comparators in education, mainly in the Nordic countries.

(2) That these discursive shifts were central to SNP strategy in education policy, given the minority status of the government. Thus although there is very little evidence of major legislative change in this field, and although the knowledge economy agenda is highly present, the shift in the discourse is highly significant and is intended to produce real change in relations and perceptions.

Under the SNP government, education policy seems to be combining 'inward' references to fairness and equality with global economic policy in a distinctive way. Outward comparison and referencing has also been used to align Scotland with comparators in education beyond the UK. Discursive strategies are highly important as a way of governing within the constraints and complexities of global and UK pressure.

Dr Margaret Arnott, Glasgow Caledonian University
Jenny Ozga, CES