The comparison and borrowing of national policies is a widespread phenomenon in all major policy areas. In education, the PISA study has resulted in a renewed interest in cross-national comparison and reception of policies. In particular, the unexpectedly low results of Germany in the PISA study have sparked increased interest in educational policies and practice elsewhere. The chapters cover a wide variety of educational sectors: vocational education and training, preparation for career choice, citizenship education, secondary and higher education, teacher training and language learning policy. These chapters are framed by more general accounts of the influence of foreign educational reform on national reform agendas and the German reaction to the results of the PISA study. This book provides insights into educational policy formation and implementation of policies into educational practice in England and Germany from a comparative perspective, and is aimed at academics, students, policy makers and the wider public with an interest in the latest developments in the long-standing mutual interest in educational matters in the two countries.

This book attempts to theorize cross-national attraction by comparing American and Chinese attraction to Japanese education. The study takes a long historical view - spanning roughly from the Meiji Restoration (1868) to today - to determine when and why Japanese education has become attractive to these two countries. It uses a combination of official reports and scholarly analysis as sources to evaluate attraction. The study is underpinned by recently developed models of educational transfer and it attempts to use a comparison of American and Chinese attraction to Japanese education as a means to further develop emerging theoretical understandings of cross-national attraction in education. The research begins with the more familiar case of American attraction to Japanese education finding that the American case shows a long period of historical neglect punctuated by a short burst of feverish attraction to Japanese education in the 1980s. The reasons for this attraction - when it finally did occur - seemed to be partially driven by Japanese economic competitiveness and partially driven by domestic political agendas within the United States. The domestic impulses for attraction are given particular attention in the analysis because few studies have detailed this aspect of attraction. The less familiar Chinese case shows a much longer educational relationship with not one, but two distinguishable periods of attraction to Japan. The first period- roughly occurring at the turn of the 20th century - was so feverish that it led to wholesale ‘borrowing’ of many aspects of the Japanese education system. A second period of Chinese attraction arguably began in the early 1990s continuing through today. The research investigates the reasons for this attraction again revealing a combination of external and internal developments that catalyze attraction. Perhaps because it is partially obscured by historical legacies and current political trends, little research has attempted to investigate Chinese attraction to Japanese education and thus the current attraction of Chinese observers to Japanese education is of particular note.By comparing these two stories of attraction (and neglect), it becomes apparent that cross-national attraction is as much a product of internal forces within these two countries, as it is a result of changes in Japanese education. The study finds that cross-national attraction is therefore best understood as a changing and malleable idea that arises as much from internal as external stimuli. This makes it vital to pay closer attention to the role of human actors in creating cross-national attraction in education. Further comparison of the two cases suggests the need to reorganize the existing theoretical models of cross-national attraction. In the final chapter, an attempt at reorganizing the models is attempted in the form of a Contextual Map of Cross-National Attraction.

This two-volume compendium brings together leading scholars from around the world who provide authoritative studies of the old and new epistemic motifs and theoretical strands that have characterized the interdisciplinary field of comparative and international education in the last 50 years. It analyses the shifting agendas of scholarly research, the different intellectual and ideological perspectives and the changing methodological approaches used to examine and interpret education and pedagogy across different political formations, societies and cultures.

The globalization of educational policy has become a popular, if not ubiquitous, phenomenon among educational policymakers across the world. It has led many observers to conclude that educational systems in different parts of the world are converging towards one international (neo-liberal) model of school reform. This practice of borrowing and lending school reforms requires a serious examination of the politics and the economics of transnational educational transfer. In this volume, Steiner-Khamsi and her colleagues provide an in-depth empirical and critical examination of the practice of global educational policy. Contributors question the value of importing and exporting educational policies, analyze who benefits from these arrangements, and test the effectiveness of adapting one country's policies in other (often quite culturally distinct) countries. The book investigates how global policies have been implemented locally, and examines the extent to which they work in diverse locales. teiner-Khamsi and her colleagues also examine the role and practices of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multilateral organizations, and the World Bank in fostering how educational policies are disseminated and adapted across national and cultural boundaries.

The aim of this Handbook is to present a global overview of developments in education and policy change during the last decade. It has the objective of providing both a strategic education policy statement on recent shifts in education and policy research globally and offers new approaches to further exploration, development and improvement of education and policy making. The Handbook attempts to address some of the above issues and problems confronting educators and policy makers globally. Different articles seek to conceptualize the on-going problems of education policy formulation and implementation, and provide a useful synthesis of the education policy research conducted in different countries, and practical implications. The Handbook, by focusing on such issues as - the OECD (2001) model of the knowledge society, and associated strategic challenge and 'deliverable goals' (OECD 2001:139) - UNESCO-driven lifelong learning paradigm, and its relevance to education policy makers, globally - different models of policy planning, and equity questions that are raised by centralization/decentralization, diversity/uniformity and curriculum standardization issues - the 'crises' of educational quality, the debate of standards and excellence, and good and effective teaching. - will contribute to a better and more holistic understanding of the education policy and research nexus; offering possible strategies for the effective and pragmatic policy planning and implementation at the local, regional and national levels.