“An important contribution to comparative studies of education and educational politics.”
— From the Foreword by Thomas S. Popkewitz

Will the “best practices” of schools in Scotland work in South Africa? Are PTA’s, a mainstay of American school governance, as valuable in European countries? Who decides and why?

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.

Steiner-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.

Gita Steiner-Khamsi is Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.

Contributors: Charles Tilly, Jürgen Schriewer and Carlos Martinez, David Phillips, Iveta Silova, Tali Yariv-Mashal, Carol Anne Spreen, Bernhard T. Streitwieser, William deJong-Lambert, Frances Vavrus, Thomas F. Luschei, Dana Burde, Phillip W. Jones, Gita Steiner-Khamsi