When policy intermediaries produce knowledge: A Bourdieusian analysis of the Education Endowment Foundation’s influence in a multi-academy trust

This article reports on data and analysis from a case study investigating policy enactments in a multi-academy trust (MAT) in England. The focus is the influence of a policy intermediary organisation (PIO), The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), on policy making by school leaders. The case is located in the literacy policy of a MAT of 15 schools. Data gathering consisted of semi-structured interviews and observations of meetings as a new literacy policy was developed. I argue using Bourdieu’s thinking tools that the EEF functions as a policy entrepreneur actively engaged in policy making in the MAT. Data evidence that the EEF influences the field agents of the MAT to underpin local policy with functionalist, standardized solutions to literacy problems. The EEF offers one example of how PIOs can be used to steer enactments to fit with government agenda, by triggering a misrecognition, which limits the capacity of education professionals to consider alternatives.