How policy networks and boundary spanners shape the teaching of reading in Australia: A social network analysis of new policy actors

Australian literacy education policy has undergone rapid transformation in recent years, shifting from decentralised, teacher-led approaches to centralised, mandated regimes narrowly defined by “science of reading” frameworks. This shift reflects broader global policy trends in education, yet it has not emerged organically from pedagogical innovation. Rather, it reflects the rise of new policy actors (philanthropic organisations, consultancy firms, think tanks, and edu-businesses) whose participation in education governance mirrors trends documented across other neoliberal states. Understanding these policy shifts requires moving beyond traditional analyses of policy texts to examine the networks of influence through which new actors reshape literacy policy discourse. This paper employs social network analysis (SNA) to examine how policy networks and boundary spanners shape Australian literacy education policy. With SNA as its primary methodological approach, providing a tool for visualising and analysing complex relationships within policy assemblages, the research design involves gathering information on public statements, organisational affiliations, and collaborative projects related to literacy education in Australia. This data is used to create visual representations of the relationships between various actors in the network governance structure, including government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organisations, and influential individuals. The paper contends that understanding Australian literacy policy requires attending to the “labour of assembling” the policy network itself, the mundane work of connectivity, relationship-building, and discourse circulation through which particular literacy approaches become naturalised as inevitable and evidence-based. By making visible the relational work of the network, the analysis reveals how policy is constructed rather than discovered, and exposing the ideological commitments and selective interpretation of research that underpin these policy shifts. This work demonstrates the importance of network analysis for understanding how global policy paradigms circulate and become embedded within national education systems.