Contests as policy events: an innovative approach to enacting multiple foreign language planning in Shanghai

This study examines how the multiple foreign language education policy is enacted in practice through language contests in Shanghai, China. It draws on policy enactment theory as the theoretical perspective and the dimensions of language-in-education planning (access policy, personnel policy, curriculum policy, methods and material policy, resourcing policy, community policy and evaluation policy) as the analytical framework. The analysis of semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews revealed that Shanghai’s multiple foreign language education was promoted through a contest-based coordination mechanism that enacted dimensions of language-in-education planning in practice. The findings suggest that language contests in the context of Shanghai served as policy events through which abstract policy intentions were rendered concrete, actionable, and aligned with situated contexts. We argue that dimensions of language-in-education planning do not exist as preformed categories to be implemented; rather, they are to be enacted as emergent and observable realities through policy events such as contests that coordinate actors and mobilise resources across institutional spaces. This study also reveals that the meaning and function of policy events such as contests are not intrinsic to the event itself but are shaped by the structural position of the actors who participate in it.