This thesis offers an exploratory policy ecology of a teacher career path policy in Malaysia, namely the innovative Excellent Teacher Program/Scheme (hereafter the ETP/S), a scheme endorsed by Cabinet in 1994 and extended and developed further since that time. The research focuses on the production of ETP/S policy texts, their enactment/implementation in schools and also provides an evaluation of the ETP/S based on semi-structured interviews with important policy actors. The study addresses a gap in the Malaysian literature in terms of its usage of critical policy sociology with a policy ecology approach and through its focus on a specific teacher career path policy, the ETP/S, created to allow for the promotion of teachers, but keeping them in the classroom, 'moving up, but not moving out', as one research interview put it.The study explores a number of aspects of the ETP/S, particularly factors involved in its production and views of its implementation or enactment. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with a range of 'policy actors', including policy makers, excellent teachers, excellent principals and a Teachers' Union (TU) representative, who have all been directly involved in the development and enactment of the ETP/S. Data were also collected through analysis of relevant documents, including the Tenth Malaysia Development Plan (10MP) (2010). These documents are analysed as part of the policy ecology framework to provide some understanding of the complex and multilayered contexts in which the ETP/S has emerged. There were also some issues in data collection connected to my dual insider/outsider status as a senior Malaysian public servant on leave and as a fulltime doctoral student. The contractual conditions of the employment of Malaysian public servants also impacted on research interviews, particularly in relation to transcription of recorded interviews, and potentially also impact on policy evaluations done by the government.The study also used the Foucauldian concept of 'governmentality' to show how the lack of clear role definition for excellent teachers at the school level saw them putting a lot of work pressure on themselves in a self-governing or governmental way. Issues to do with how to evaluate applicants, select them and appoint them were also raised, particularly as the quota of excellent teachers was increased and selection moved out of the Ministry to the school level. For many of the research respondents, this raised concerns regarding whether those selected at school level were really 'excellent'.iii The study found that the formulation of the ETP/S had multiple motivations, comprising pressures from the profession concerning slow promotion rates and limited career paths, and related political pressure from the TU. The broader meta-goals of the Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) also provide part of the ecology today of the ETP/S. While the quota for excellent teachers has been increased, excellent teachers still only constitute less than four percent of all teachers in Ma...

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