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Using our re-readings of Margaret Meek Spencer's work and career, we connect her scholarship to our mapping of contemporary changes in knowledge and our investigations of so-called "knowers": those mobilising knowledge to underpin and control professionals' enactment of policy in primary school literacy. Working from the theoretical resources of Basil Bernstein, we develop an analysis of these knowers' production of knowledge, navigating from his conceptualisations of "official" and "pedagogical" fields into what we define as a "corporate" field of knowledge. Presenting data from our research into two groups - (i) commercial consultants, retailing policy solutions to professionals; and (ii) a Chief Executive officer and leaders within multi-academy trusts - we argue that working in a "corporate" field, these knowers have influence on professionals' knowledge and positioning. We draw out speculative implications for readers of this journal concerning potential contributions to resistance as well as developing a reflexive approach to our own work.

It is widely believed that regression models for binary responses are problematic if we want to compare estimated coefficients from models for different groups or with different explanatory variables. This concern has two forms. The first arises if the binary model is treated as an estimate of a model for an unobserved continuous response and the second when models are compared between groups that have different distributions of other causes of the binary response. We argue that these concerns are usually misplaced. The first of them is only relevant if the unobserved continuous response is really the subject of substantive interest. If it is, the problem should be addressed through better measurement of this response. The second concern refers to a situation which is unavoidable but unproblematic, in that causal effects and descriptive associations are inherently group dependent and can be compared as long as they are correctly estimated.

The role and contribution of consultants and consultancy in public services has grown rapidly and the power of consultants suggests the emergence of a "consultocracy". We draw on research evidence from the social sciences and critical education policy (CEP) studies to present an examination of the state of the field. We deploy a framework that examines functional, critical and socially critical research and theorising, and we identify the emerging interest in CEP studies. In particular, we identify the potential for consultocracy but acknowledge that there is a need for more detailed research where we argue for more attention to be given to the political sciences in theorising knowledge exchange processes.

This article is linked to the theme of the special issue through its focus on micropolitical analysis of the changing role of "policy drivers", mediating national policy through interactions with primary school heads and teachers. The central arguments draw on case studies undertaken in two primary schools where changes related to literacy teaching were being enacted at a particular historical moment (in 2008-2009). Conceptual tools are drawn from the work of Goffman on frame analysis to examine how an increasingly diverse range of drivers, representing new forms of marketisation (Local Authority (LA) consultants; a regional director responsible for the travel of literacy policy; one "bought in" from a private company) interacted with practitioners. Differences in the framing of policy between heads, teachers and policy drivers are identified and analysed as significant features of new kinds of "assemblages" in public policy. Insights from the analysis are drawn on to propose a research agenda for policy research in the literacy field in a shifting political era in England (and the rest of the United Kingdom). This agenda incorporates critical perspectives, giving voice to practitioners, and building on international work, as well as work on policy drivers in other educational areas, and from other disciplines. (Contains 1 table.)