This is a study of the role of epistemic communities involved in the policymaking of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB Act). It uses Antoniades’s (2003) framework as a theoretical lens. According to Antoniades, epistemic communities are conceptualized as “socially recognized knowledge-based networks, the members of which share a common understanding of a particular problem/issue or a common worldview and seek to translate their beliefs into dominant social discourse and social practice” (26). The epistemic communities involved in the policymaking of the NCLB Act are identified and analyzed through the content analysis of relevant Congressional testimony and interviews with individuals involved in the development of the Act. NUDIST-QSR (Nonnumerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorising) software is used to code data from the qualitative analyses.
Five epistemic communities involved in the policymaking of the NCLB Act are identified in this study. They are the liberal, conservative, business-oriented, Hispanic, and education epistemic communities. This study finds some support for Antoniades’s framework. Every epistemic community except the business epistemic community exhibited a constant and holistic character. It emerged and ceased to exist as a result of the NCLB Act. All five epistemic communities engaged in cognitive action, served as advisors or sources of information to Congress and enjoyed access to an institutional structure. The only epistemic community that did not have access to the media is the Hispanic epistemic community. These findings support Antoniades’s claims. However, none of the epistemic communities held press conferences or attended seminars or lectures. The Hispanic epistemic community was the only epistemic community to hold a conference. The most significant finding of this research is none of the epistemic communities enjoyed consensus of policy goals. Antoniades’s model should be revised to take into account that members of epistemic communities do not need consensus of policy goals or have to hold press conferences or attend seminars to be effective.