This analytical tool is designed to assist better understanding of the purposes informing policies, programs and practices, and to act on this understanding. It can be used at school or system level. The ideas informing the framework are drawn from a 3 year national research project on the purposes of education, and assume that public purposes are the preeminent educational purposes.
The public purposes relate to the advancement of the interests of the society as a whole, and are based the principles of democratic and social justice.
The tool consists of a series of focus questions.