Teachers as actors of education policy: A conceptualization of actors in public policy and an application of selected approaches on the example of teachers

The doctoral thesis has primarily a theoretical character and outcomes. The focus of interest is formed by a detailed investigation of the actor concept in key theoretical approaches to contemporary public policy; the results are subsequently applied on the example of education policy, particularly on teachers as a specific actor category. The goals of this thesis are: 1) to describe how the words "actor", "agent" and "stakeholder" (which all translate as "aktér" in the Czech language) are used in public policy articles; 2) to introduce and compare selected public policy approaches working with actors; 3) to model how these approaches are used in the case of teachers (as actors) and the policy of tracking; 4) to create a comprehensive conceptual framework for the public policy research on actors. The analytical part of the doctoral thesis is based on a summative content analysis of public policy texts published in four extensive handbooks of public policy