Policy Borrowing

Japanese Lesson Study (JLS) is a professional development method, involving teachers collaboratively planning lessons, observing their enactment, then discussing observations of teaching and learning. This paper explores translation of JLS internationally, seeking to understand how and why it is adapted and how an understanding of national culture and implementation paradigms might support translation. We begin by examining evidence on adaptation and challenges of JLS implementation internationally, finding both deviation from the seven components of JLS, and qualitative evidence of perceived challenges to successful implementation. Further we explore two bodies of the literature explaining how and why such adaptations occur. First, implementation science reveals that full fidelity appears not to be amenable to the complexity of education innovations like LS, but that adaptation is fraught with challenges, with no linear pathway. Secondly, Hofstede's and colleagues' dimensions of culture enable us to hypothesise about how Japan's culture might have framed development of JLS, and to predict possible challenges when translated into a host nation. Finally, we hypothesize as to the relationship between adoption of either fidelity or adaptation implementation paradigms, and identified differences between Japan and the host nation's national culture, suggesting avenues for further research which may serve to test hypotheses empirically.

This dissertation primarily contributes to the advancement of policy borrowing and lending theory. In addition to the politics and economics of borrowing, the case of Thailand elucidates the existence of a culture of borrowing. Thailand deploys externalization strategy to justify the locally and historically rooted logic and aspiration that becoming modern and adapted to global trends is a national necessity. By identifying the multiple faces of globalization and how it has been used as problem, policy, and politics, this dissertation also contributes to
strengthening Comparative Policy Studies

Botswana has turned out as an exemplary development success amongst other African countries. Despite its commendable development, there is still high youth unemployment rate. This master thesis examines Botswana's TVET system in terms of its ability to develop competence-based skills that are relevant for the needs and demands of the labour market. Due to the lack of research in Botswana, this case study had an exploratory character. The demand orientation on the needs of the labour market is organised by a sector committee that determines the developments and what kind of programmes will be required in the upcoming five years. One of the significant findings of this research is the correlation between political engagement and society's appreciation of TVET. Due to a neglection of TVET in political decision making, physical resources in schools are outdated and do not meet the standards of industry. As a consequence, students learn the techniques on old models. Compared to other countries, Botswanan TVET students are sometimes not competitive with other nations in Africa and globally. Therefore, it may be the perfect time for political authorities to invest in reforming the system. Several recommendations have been made. Most important factor is adequate funding of TVET. Self-employment as a means of job creation is highly encouraged and through various programmes supported. By these programmes, unemployed youth and early schooldropouts find access to further education and training.

The paper presents a genealogy of the Bloomberg administration's Opportunity NYC program, launched in 2007 as part of New York City's explicitly experimental anti-poverty strategy. Opportunity NYC was modeled on ''conditional cash transfer" programs, currently operating in more than thirty countries across the Global South, drawing direct inspiration from Mexico's widely touted Oportunidades program. This striking case of South-North policy emulation calls attention to some distinctive features of what is characterized here as a transnationalizing ''fast-policy" regime, based on technocratic forms of program evaluation and development, dense expert networks, and orchestrated communities of practice, within which a range of policy intermediaries-particularly those connected with multilateral agencies-are assuming significant new roles. What appears to be a pragmatic form of policy learning in fact operates in the context of narrow ideological parameters, within which there is a concerted technocratic ''push" toward favored solutions.

The paper aims to reveal how educational policies in England have shifted over time revealing 'policy eras' and underpinning ideologies using Hodgson and Spours (2006) framework from 1944 to 2011. I take a critical policy historiography approach to map the processes and systems of educational developments and reveal the potential relationships between the problems and issues of the present and the past. Two key political eras are identified. The first is an egalitarian approach and engagement with community interests underpinned by respect and recognition for diversity within and amongst human beings. The second era focuses on self-interests within neo-liberal market forces of supply and demand. The argument I make is the nation faces a challenge of how to provide socially just education processes and systems that balance these two interests whilst facilitating civic engagement, or 'participation' with education systems and processes through evidence informed participatory policy making and implementation.

In recent years, a credit recognition system has been developing in Uzbek higher education institutions. Much research has been done on this development, but it has been concentrated on system building, barriers/issues and international practices. The relationship between credit recognition system reforms and democratization of higher education has attracted little attention. This article will provide insight for understanding the ongoing development of credit recognition in Uzbek institutions, in the perspective of democratisation. It outlines the major institutional implications of credit recognition system development and illustrates what have been effected in Uzbek high education institutions in terms of democratisation. The author suggests that though democratisation is not pursued as an official policy, it is going on unnoticed, hand in hand with reforms to recognise credit for study in Uzbek higher education.

Con motivo de este informe, los invito a reflexionar sobre los cambios que ha tenido el método de la comparación a través de los años, y a explorar porqué se usa, cada vez más, como una herramienta para establecer los programas de políticas. Propongo dos ángulos para hacer esta reflexión. Primero, sugiero que investiguemos cómo es que el método de la comparación se ha desarrollado como herramienta de políticas en nuestro campo, y luego, veamos cómo es utilizado, por otros, en estudios de políticas. En el fondo de este intento hay un interés genuino por entender los cambios que sufren las políticas en una era de interconexión global. Reflexionar sobre la comparación como método, no es un asunto trivial. Muchos estudiosos en educación comparada e internacional, especialmente los que se encuentran fuera de los Estados Unidos, se preguntan porqué seguimos llamándonos comparatistas. A juzgar por el gran número de estudios sobre países individuales, publicados en la revista del CIES, la comparación no parece ser el método preferido de investigación en nuestro campo. Otros van más allá y preguntan porqué no nos quitamos, también, el título de inter-nacional, dado que muy pocos de nosotros lidiamos con intercambios, propiamente dichos, entre individuos o instituciones de dos o más naciones. Una vez que borramos esos dos términos, nos convertimos, simplemente, en investigadores educativos con un interés profundo por entender la educación más allá de nuestras propias fronteras. ¿Sería realmente equívoca una descripción así? Después de todo, somos conocidos por muchos, como los que realizamos investigación educativa fuera de nuestro país, escribimos acerca de sistemas educativos de otros pueblos, y damos consejos a gobiernos y a organizaciones de países distintos al nuestro. ¿Qué tendría de malo aceptar que somos como cualquier otro investigador educativo o analista de políticas, pero con la notable excepción de que nosotros adoptamos, sistemáticamente, la perspectiva transnacional, o como dice Stephen Carney: utilizamos una perspectiva de la globalización en nuestro trabajo? 2 Aún menos trivial resulta la reflexión sobre la comparación como herramienta de políticas. Yo sostengo, en este informe, que los expertos en nuestro campo pasaron, exitosamente, de una preocupación normativa sobre el debate de la transferencia de políticas, a un acercamiento más analítico. Lo primero, está presente en la pregunta centenaria que hiciera Sadler: "¿Hasta qué punto podemos aprender algo, de valor práctico, con el estudio de sistemas extranjeros de educación?" (1900). Lo segundo, mientras tanto, incluye preguntas tales como: ¿En qué instancias y constelaciones particulares, los diseñadores de políticas se refieren a las lecciones aprendidas en otros países? ¿Cuándo recurren a las mejores prácticas (best practices) e insisten en que se hagan respetar los estándares internacionales-estos dos conceptos definidos, a menudo, de manera muy general? El acercamiento analítico al estudio de la transferencia educativa tiene, tanto una dimensión política, como una económica. Políticamente, la transferencia, tiene un efecto saludable en conflictos prolongados con respecto a alguna política particular: ayuda a construir coaliciones. Le permite, a grupos promotores contrarios, combinar recursos para apoyar una tercera opción, supuestamente más neutral, que se transfiere de un lugar a otro. Los estándares internacionales se han convertido, cada vez más, en un punto común de referencia en ese tipo de decisiones. Económicamente, la transferencia de políticas es, muchas veces, un fenómeno pasajero, porque sólo existe mientras el financiamiento externo-supeditado a la importación de un paquete de reforma particular-continúe. En el caso de los países pobres, la transferencia de políticas es, al sector educativo, lo que el ajuste estructural, la reducción de la pobreza y un buen gobierno son para el sector público en general: una condición para recibir ayuda. La transferencia de políticas, en países en desarrollo, como un requisito para obtener financiamiento o préstamos a nivel programático, es un hecho coercivo y unidireccional. Las reformas se transfieren del Norte/Oeste global al Sur/Este global.

Meaningful and emancipatory education which empowers citizens as democrats is the ideal education which can propel the socioeconomic and political fibre of nay nation-state. After independence, Botswana aligned her education system with the envisioned development process. The sad thing about this ambitious approach in Botswana is that it sought to produce citizens who would pragmatically be engaged in the development of a democratic nation-state yet the pedagogically approaches to education were at variance with pragmatic and empowering democratic education. The ultimate result became mass production of the educated or degreed citizens who could not penetrate the job market. Bookish and examinationoriented education which is far divorced from vocation and the realities of the job market ultimately results in the perpetuation of frustrated educated citizens who roam the streets as victims of the diploma disease. Botswana is traumatized by the diploma disease as evidenced by escalating figures of unemployed graduates. As such, this paper argues that Botswana's education system should focus on the ideals of pragmatic democratic education by embracing and advancing Business Education which will empower citizens to develop vocational skills which they can utilize to create jobs for themselves, thus countering the current traumatic scourge of the diploma disease.

A common feature of contemporary policymaking is the sharing and adaptation of policies from other countries. As neo-liberal globalisation continues to impact on the development of policy, such practices are increasingly commonplace. This article considers the current phenomenon of 'policy borrowing' with reference to the use of data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the 2010 Schools White Paper The Importance of Teaching. The article also traces the origins of policy borrowing and shows what philosophy of education can bring to its discourse.

Building on an examination of comparative and international literature and their research and development experiences, the authors highlight a number of continuities, changes, and issues between Soviet and post-Soviet, international and Central Asian experiences of borrowing and lending of education reforms. Even though Central Asian actors and institutions are not totally helpless victims and though international experts and NGOs appear well-meaning in these globalizing education transfers, the processes are leading toward reproducing global and local dependencies and inequalities.The trajectory of education reforms in Central Asia echo those of other developing countries. In response, the authors urge local policy makers and comparative educators to join in a critical and reflexive strategic venture of re-encountering and reshaping the global and neoliberal offers to serve the needs of interconnected local and global justice.

Internationalization has become an important strategy for many Japanese universities as they face falling enrollments. While some have successfully attracted students from overseas, others seek different means by which to promote their international appeal, primarily as an attractor of domestic applicants. One way that this is highly visible is in the creation of international communication lounges on campuses: mediated spaces for intercultural exchange and language study that have developed out of the imported model of the self-access center. This ethnographic study looks at the establishment of an International Communication Lounge (ICL) at a private university on the outskirts of Tokyo, where exchange activities, open-access communication classes, and self-study facilities are provided to students in a casual setting. Phillips and Ochs (2003) four stages of policy borrowing in education are utilized as a framework to gain insight into the motivations of various stakeholders in the development of the facility. The ICL is shown to have had a positive impact on interest in international exchange programs and on motivation to study English among the small group of students who make use of the facility. Through this study, a microcosmic view of one university's efforts to internationalize their campus is provided, and there is an impetus for further discussion on the value and implementation of self-access communication spaces on university campuses.

Although initially a European reform, the Bologna Process has had a spill-over effect in other parts of the world. This paper, based on the public lectio of my doctoral dissertation, used policy borrowing as a theoretical framework to examine the adoption and adaptation of Bologna reforms in Cameroon, a country with a complex colonial and post-colonial history. My dissertation sought answers to three research questions focusing on the reasons for the adoption in Cameroon, the introduction, dissemination and local response to the adoption in Cameroon and the implementation of some of the lines of action in Cameroon and what they reveal about the use of borrowed policies at the local level. These questions were addressed in four original articles, using data from text documents and interviews and analysed mainly through thematic analysis. The findings, based on the four articles, drew attention to both internal and external reasons for adoption, and how and why what was adopted was locally adapted to suit the local context. The findings contributed to the research and international debate on the transformations exerted by the Bologna Process outside the European higher education area referred to as the external dimension of the Bologna Process.

This paper seeks to connect the work on policy mobility in education and that in other fields through a review of literature. Drawing on material from political science, international relations, geography, and economic and social development, it discusses different forms of policy mobility like traveling policies, policy borrowing, and silent borrowing. It concludes that policy transfer is a more dynamic process than the bounded cyclical and linear models often used in education policy debates.

Vocationalization of open schooling is paramount for Botswana, a nation dedicated to sustainable development and economic growth. This article emphasizes the urgent need to integrate vocational education within the open schooling framework, focusing on its potential to address skills gaps, empower marginalized groups, and contribute to Botswana’s knowledge-based economy. By equipping the youth with relevant skills, vocationalized open schooling offers a pathway to alleviate future unemployment challenges. This article estimates the demographic potential benefiting from this approach, particularly the youth population of Botswana. Vocational education stands as a strategic imperative for Botswana, aligning with its goals of inclusive growth and equipping learners with practical skills that match industry demands. The convergence of vocational education and open schooling holds transformative power, providing accessible and relevant education to those historically excluded while prepa...

This article analyses empirical data to assess the possible transfer of Finnish teacher education policy, and more specifically, the university training school, into another context. Transnational organisations increasingly pressure nation-states to carry out education policy change, especially due to dissatisfaction with international assessment outcomes. As a high performer in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), administered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Finland has been at the centre of international attention. PISA revealed that the high quality of Finnish teachers contributes to the overall calibre of the country’s education system. Thus, Finnish teacher education has become a model for other education systems. This article uses empirical research to explore the export possibilities of the Finnish normaalikoulu, or university training school. It implements qualitative methodology, using semi-structured interviews wit...

Purpose: The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the alignments between primary schools teachers' continuous professional development practices, performance evaluation and career growths in Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. Method: A mixed method with concurrent triangulation design was employed in the study. The primary data was collected from a total of 618 respondents. The samples were selected by using purposive, availability, stratified and simple random sampling techniques from different sources of data. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed by using descriptive (percentage, average mean, standard deviation) and inferential (one-sample t-test, Pearson correlation and one-way ANOVA) statistics and narration respectively. Results: Principals and supervisors were not committed to make professional decisions to offer professional, technical and material supports to ensure the effectiveness of teachers' CPD practices. Thus, they didn't provide enough professional, technical and material supports to ascertain best CPD practices and the achievement of career growths was rated by teachers, mentors and principals (M 1 =14.72, M 2 =13.89 & M 3 =12.34). There was no statistically significant differences of means [F (2, 545) = 1.950, p =0.145] at the p >0.05 level. The misalignment between CPD interventions, career growths and its exclusions from performance evaluation of teachers negatively affected CPD practices. There was statistically significant difference among the means of respondents [F (2, 547) = 105.552, p =0.000] at the p <0.05 level. Conclusions and recommendations: The practical gaps between teachers' performance evaluation, CPD practices and career growths should be bridged to improve teachers' career growths, competencies and students' learning outcomes. The worth given to CPD practices in teachers' performance evaluation should be upgraded at least to 35% per semester in an academic year. Finally, educational leaders should have optimistic vision, mission and destination to improve teachers' competencies, career growths and students' learning outcomes.

Within the disciplines of education and political science, the phenomenon of the voluntary transfer of policy ideas or practices from elsewhere, or "policy borrowing", is often the topic of intense debate and study. The study of policy transfer also has strong links with the field of diffusion. Scholars in these fields Reconstructing the Emergence of Teach First Page III DECLARATION I, Emilee Rauschenberger, declare this thesis is of my own composition, based on my own work, with acknowledgement of other sources, and has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification.

This thesis explores how, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is being influenced by the globalising influences of the Tertiary Education and Training (TET) market and the associated national organisational changes in Botswana. Botswana achieved its independence in 1966 and was once one of the poorest countries in the world. However, since the discovery of diamonds, Botswana has risen into an upper middle-income country with one of the highest investments per GDP in the world in education and training. Government Technical Colleges (GTCs) have been equally supported with heavy investment in modernising, equipping and expanding facilities to the highest first world standards which have virtually doubled the available student capacity since 2000. In 2000, a new full-time qualification, the Botswana Technical Education Programme (BTEP) was launched to enable more young people to access TVET. Botswana has always been committed to privatisation in the belief that it is mor...

Although initially a European reform, the Bologna Process has had a spillover effect in other parts of the world. This study sought to contribute to the research and international debate on the transformations exerted by the Bologna Process outside the European higher education area, with a focus on the Cameroonian higher education system. Specifically, the dissertation uses policy borrowing as a theoretical framework to examine the adoption and adaptation of Bologna reforms in Cameroon. To this end, four original empirical studies were conducted that focus on aspects of the adoption (reasons for the adoption, introduction, dissemination and local response) and adaptation (local translation and implementation) stages of policy borrowing of Bologna objectives in Cameroon. The focus in Articles I and II is on adoption, while Articles III and IV concentrate on adaptation. This study also includes an introductory section in which the context, scope, theoretical and methodological choices, and main findings from the empirical studies are discussed. Data for the analysis consisted of text documents and 62 semi-structured interviews conducted between October and December 2013. The interviewees were various stakeholders in higher education in Cameroon, including policy makers, university administrators and lecturers. The data were analysed mainly through thematic analysis (Articles I, II & IV), with thematic analysis and temporal analytical approaches combined for Article III. The findings revealed that the reasons for adoption of Bologna Process ideas in the Cameroon higher education system emerged from the supposed 'globalness' of the Bologna Process and the desire to harmonise higher education in the Central African sub-region, of which Cameroon is a part, following this global trend. The findings also indicated that the need to apply international standards and the solutionoriented nature of the Bologna Process, combined with the internal challenges facing the Cameroon higher education system, especially in terms of harmonising the dual French and Anglo-Saxon systems of education in Cameroon, made the Bologna Process a good fit for Cameroon. The results provided insight into the different ways through which Bologna Process ideas were introduced and disseminated in Cameroon. The study showed that the adoption and adaptation of Bologna Process ideas in the Cameroon higher education system started from a cross-regional initiative to create the Communaute Economique et Monetaire de L'Afrique Centrale (CEMAC) space for higher education, research and professional training. Thus, its introduction in Cameroon was a political decision and an imposition by the state on the universities because of Cameroon's obligation to CEMAC. Its introduction also was viewed as a v theoretical (abstract principles of the Bologna Process), practical/realistic (successful in Europe with promise in Cameroon) and quick-fix (with insufficient regard for the dual subsystems of higher education in Cameroon) decision. The results showed that the main instruments for Bologna Process dissemination came through national and institutional texts guiding implementation and through conferences and seminars. As a borrowed model, this dissertation indicated that learning from the borrower (externalisation of the borrowing potential) took the form of Cameroonian experts traveling abroad and Bologna experts traveling to Cameroon to share their experiences with the Bologna Process. The study indicated that colonial history shaped the local response, i.e., public perceptions of Bologna adoption in Cameroon, highlighting tension and complexities in introducing a borrowed model in a dual educational system. The implementation of some of the Bologna objectives in Cameroon supported the notion that policy borrowing is always adapted based on contextual factors (in the case of the degree structure and credit system). Its implementation also highlighted the fact that sometimes, policy borrowing can be used only as a reference point to inspire local reforms and solutions (e.g., the employability agenda). The present set of studies takes on new significance in the current context of policy borrowing, indicating the shift from the diverse reasons for cross-national attraction in a particular education system to a cross-regional attraction in a regional space with harmonisation as one of the main impulses for policy borrowing. Although this dissertation focuses on the Bologna Process' impact on Cameroon's higher education system as a single-country comparative design, the discussions presented herein also connect the national case to international and regional debates.

Although initially a European reform, the Bologna Process has had a spill-over effect in other parts of the world. This paper, based on the public lectio of my doctoral dissertation, used policy borrowing as a theoretical framework to examine the adoption and adaptation of Bologna reforms in Cameroon, a country with a complex colonial and post-colonial history. My dissertation sought answers to three research questions focusing on the reasons for the adoption in Cameroon, the introduction, dissemination and local response to the adoption in Cameroon and the implementation of some of the lines of action in Cameroon and what they reveal about the use of borrowed policies at the local level. These questions were addressed in four original articles, using data from text documents and interviews and analysed mainly through thematic analysis. The findings, based on the four articles, drew attention to both internal and external reasons for adoption, and how and why what was adopted was locally adapted to suit the local context. The findings contributed to the research and international debate on the transformations exerted by the Bologna Process outside the European higher education area referred to as the external dimension of the Bologna Process.

A number of studies in the past few decades address how the governing of educational systems are changing as a result of intensified measurement and use of statistics. This article suggests that another consequence may be the construction of solutions, tools, and methods which target the problems constructed through comparable indicators and benchmarks. An increased proliferation and accessibility of models, methods, and outcomes has inspired both governments and practitioners to look beyond their national borders for solutions to specific problems or challenges. As a consequence, ideas, methods, and approaches increasingly resemble commodities in the global marketplace. The article investigates the diffusion of a method for school development, namely the model for learning environment and pedagogical analysis (the LP-model). The model was developed in Norway in 2005 and later spread to a number of schools and municipalities across the country, and subsequently to Denmark. We analyse the cross-national borrowing process by applying the framework of policy borrowing. The framework serves as a heuristic in our analysis of information from the LP-model's websites, evaluation reports and booklets. The analysis shows that similar descriptions of problems and high policy expectations for addressing the problems constitute central preconditions for the borrowing process. We also find that claims that the model works play an important part in marketing the model. Moreover, the model was warranted by high-profile researchers in Norway and Denmark constituting powerful personal and professional networks.

This article argues that certain established vocabularies that are used to interpret the circulation of educational discourse and its transformation in different settings have significant limitations to capture the complexity inherent to new geographies of power/knowledge in education and that, consequently, we need to develop new concepts to analyse the movement of educational discourses across space. After a critique of concepts such as 'transfer' and 'policy borrowing', we offer an alternative kind of approach by using Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to briefly analyse Conectar Igualdad, a program in Argentina that distributes one computer per student in secondary schools. It will be shown how the use ANT can make certain connections visible that would not be so noticeable using the established vocabularies discussed above.

Inclusive education in general and disability-inclusive education in particular is a high level priority for development work in aid supported countries. This paper presents a bottom up process of developing disability-inclusive education policy in one countrythe Solomon Islands. It is well understood that the promotion of quality in disabilityinclusive education requires a clearly stated policy; however, in many developing countries there has been a history of policy borrowing rather than culturally informed policy development. This paper will critically discuss how policy development occurs in aid funded development work and then offers an alternative model of Australian aid supported policy development as an in-depth case study.

The transformation of post-socialist education is perhaps one of the most interesting developments in the history of comparative education. The collapse of the socialist system led to a series of crises: -          Ideological crisis – the collapse of the socialist idea of education, partially replaced by the ideology of neoliberalism. -          Social crisis – dismantling of the socialist welfare system and attempts to replace it by different Western models of social welfare. -          Economic crisis – transition from planned to market economy which led to deterioration of educational infrastructure. -          Cultural crisis – socialist culture was replaced by different modifications of promoting national and/or regional cultures. -          Structural crisis – countries with practically identical educational structures chose different ways of restructuring education. After the failure of the previous system Western researchers assumed that the common model of transition will ...

Why are contractors keen to develop, implement, and analyse
International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs) when they appear
to make no financial gains? What, if not monetary profit, makes
ILSA contracts so attractive? Almost all ILSA contractors interviewed
as part of this project state that their ILSA work is an investment,
either in the form of a break-even or a loss contract. This paper
discusses why contractors carry out ILSA contracts or donate to
ILSAs, analysing 35 interviews with OECD and IEA staff and ILSA
contractors and applying policy borrowing and lending theory to
non-state actors. Drawing on Brostrom’s (2012) study, this paper
identifies contractor rationales on an organizational level that relate
to developing improved or new products and processes, gaining
access to networks, managing human capital, and creating direct
business opportunities. This paper adds a fifth category of individual
rationales, whereby contractors are driven by professional
opportunities, lifestyles, and emotional bonds that ILSAs provide.
What becomes apparent is an innovation rhetoric gap and that
ILSAs are a ‘golden door’ to business opportunities. The paper
concludes that contractors’ motivations and agendas become
encoded in ILSAs as they buy themselves into ILSA networks, thus
shaping the way education is measured, understood, and acted
upon.

This paper aims to show the complex overlapping and interaction with exogenous influences in the processes of national policymaking by analysing a case of policy borrowing in Japan. Specifically, it explores the political circumstances under which the Council of Europe Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was introduced to foreign language education policy at the national government level in Japan. The results suggest that the CEFR was borrowed selectively as a practical solution to achieve prolonged educational and political agendas promoted by multiple actors such as academics, the Ministry of Education (MEXT), and a group of politicians and business associations. This study moreover shows that the CEFR borrowing occurred under manifold interplays between multiple global education trends and domestic needs for Japanese citizens to acquire a practical communicative command of English to strengthen their international economic competitiveness.

Executive Summary One of the most prominent and controversial aspects of the New Labour government‟ s education policy is undoubtedly the Academies programme. Despite criticisms of the programme, it continues to be a major plank of government education ...

Initial Teacher Education quality is often judged through the auspices of audit-style mechanisms designed to facilitate the identification of matters pertaining to the 'readiness' of student teachers to enter the world of the classroom as fully qualified. In this regard, quality of programmes is often determined by the knowledge and skills student teachers demonstrate. Whilst ontological aspects are not necessarily elided, they are often ignored in favour of such epistemological matters. While such knowledge-based positions do not describe the totality of ITE quality evaluation they do predominate. This paper identifies a tripartite heuristic for the identification of ITE epistemology that explicitly refers to, and is requiring of, ontological matters in the development of student teachers: identifying teaching, doing teaching, knowing teaching. Whilst it is the result of a Scottish project, Measuring the Quality of Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE), its emphasis is notable for other countries.

The lesson study (LS) model, which originated in Japan, has become popular all over the world. This article will highlight some of the challenges encountered when the LS model was picked up and introduced in a local school context in a Norwegian municipality. The article views this process in the light of research on LS-model transfer into local contexts in various countries, and considers the impact modes of collaboration have on the implementation of a borrowed idea. The aim has been to reflect upon the challenges encountered in transforming a global idea into local practice. A four-stage composite-process model has provided the framework for this personal reflection: stage 1: cross-national attraction; stage 2: decision-making; stage 3: implementation; and stage 4: internalisation. The article argues that the LS model may undergo a transformation from an idea that is global, into a practice that is glocal.

Botswana through its two educational reform philosophies of 1977 and 1994 envisioned a developing education system that is on par with international standards. According to Tabulawa (2009), the education system was developed to produce critical thinkers, problem solvers, and innovative learners. The system was designed to provide opportunities for all students by providing access to all, improve the standards of education, emancipate Batswana from illiteracy, and develop their capabilities to create a social transformation in their lives. Education was to be a vehicle for continuous positive change that would ultimately enable people to build a better world. However, the system is wanting since most students drop out of school, fail the national examinations, or are unemployable graduates. Research shows that the standard and quality of education is deteriorating as evidenced by high rates of failure at primary and secondary schools. This paper established the reasons for deteriorat...

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A number of studies in the past few decades address how the governing of educational systems are changing as a result of intensified measurement and use of statistics. This article suggests that another consequence may be the construction of solutions, tools, and methods which target the problems constructed through comparable indicators and benchmarks. An increased proliferation and accessibility of models, methods, and outcomes has inspired both governments and practitioners to look beyond their national borders for solutions to specific problems or challenges. As a consequence, ideas, methods, and approaches increasingly resemble commodities in the global marketplace. The article investigates the diffusion of a method for school development, namely the model for learning environment and pedagogical analysis (the LP-model). The model was developed in Norway in 2005 and later spread to a number of schools and municipalities across the country, and subsequently to Denmark. We analyse the cross-national borrowing process by applying the framework of policy borrowing. The framework serves as a heuristic in our analysis of information from the LP-model's websites, evaluation reports and booklets. The analysis shows that similar descriptions of problems and high policy expectations for addressing the problems constitute central preconditions for the borrowing process. We also find that claims that the model works play an important part in marketing the model. Moreover, the model was warranted by high-profile researchers in Norway and Denmark constituting powerful personal and professional networks.

The objective of this article is quasi-experimental. By using the logic of game theory to explain the establishment of the state of the United Arab Emirates, the article intends to test the ability of game theory to explain a pre-played game. Although formal game theory is not susceptible to experimentation, game to political science and public policy is like experiments to psychology. Hence this paper attempts to use the already played game of the establishment of the state of the United Arab Emirates as an experiment to answer the question: is the outcome of this game conforms with game theory modeling. Thus, the article models that game as the Extended Battle of Sexes game and use both the normal and extensive forms to address that question.

Internationalization has become an important strategy for many Japanese universities as they face falling enrollments. While some have successfully attracted students from overseas, others seek different means by which to promote their international appeal, primarily as an attractor of domestic applicants. One way that this is highly visible is in the creation of international communication lounges on campuses: mediated spaces for intercultural exchange and language study that have developed out of the imported model of the self-access center. This ethnographic study looks at the establishment of an International Communication Lounge (ICL) at a private university on the outskirts of Tokyo, where exchange activities, open-access communication classes, and self-study facilities are provided to students in a casual setting. four stages of policy borrowing in education are utilized as a framework to gain insight into the motivations of various stakeholders in the development of the facility. The ICL is shown to have had a positive impact on interest in international exchange programs and on motivation to study English among the small group of students who make use of the facility. Through this study, a microcosmic view of one university's efforts to internationalize their campus is provided, and there is an impetus for further discussion on the value and implementation of self-access communication spaces on university campuses.

Higher education institutions in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have started internationalizing quality assessment procedures; those in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan have not. The differences concern politics (the willingness of national leadership to be transparent, internally and externally) and economics (the nation&#39;s ability to finance educational reform and to resist inappropriate &quot;educational…

The lesson study (LS) model, which originated in Japan, has become popular all over the world. This article will highlight some of the challenges encountered when the LS model was picked up and introduced in a local school context in a Norwegian municipality. The article views this process in the light of research on LS-model transfer into local contexts in various countries, and considers the impact modes of collaboration have on the implementation of a borrowed idea. The aim has been to reflect upon the challenges encountered in transforming a global idea into local practice. A four-stage composite-process model has provided the framework for this personal reflection: stage 1: cross-national attraction; stage 2: decision-making; stage 3: implementation; and stage 4: internalisation. The article argues that the LS model may undergo a transformation from an idea that is global, into a practice that is glocal.

The education of special teachers’ is seldom studied, and when it is examined, it is compared primarily with general teacher education. The written academic curricula reflect scientific, professional, social, and ethical values, goals, and competences in education, school and society. This study analyses the special teacher education (STE) curricula from six Finnish and seven Swedish universities. The results show that Finnish STE curricula consists of 60 credits over one year , while the Swedish curricula comprises 90 credits over 1.5 years. Finnish STE can be called a “combo degree,” which addressed various learning difficulties, and Swedish STE transformed it into a specialization, with five different options. Teaching practice is essential in Finnish education, but does not exists as such in Sweden. Inclusive elements are somewhat present in the curricula, often in the form of co-operation. The core contents in these two countries are discussed and compared.

Teacher standards are used in many countries, but it has been argued that there is a disconnection between the standards and teachers' everyday practices. Mega-narratives about teachers' practices have been recognised as powerful for educational change and when implementing and legitimising standards. In this comparative study, the standards for newly qualified teachers in Australia, Scotland and Sweden are analysed in order to determine the extent to which they contain human elements, here framed as contextual professionalism, and/or paradigmatic knowledge (Olson and Craig in Teach Coll Rec 111(2):547-572, 2009a). This comparison facilitates an exploration of how teachers' work is envisaged in the respective countries and what is expected or required from newly qualified teachers. The results indicate that the Australian and Scottish standards emphasise paradigmatic knowledge in teaching, whereas the now abandoned Swedish standards emphasise contextual professionalism in teaching.

Asia. Reasons varied. Some observers cited the persistence of Soviet-style authoritarianism, the widespread secularization that characterized most industrial democracies, and the moderate religious beliefs in the region that had traditionally been shaped by Hanafi legal practices, popular spirituality, shamanism, and Sufi mysticism (Polonskaia and Malashenko 1994; Sagdeev and Eisenhower 2000; Abashin and Bobrovnikov 2003). With independence in the early 1990s, missionary groups appeared in the Caucasus and Central Asia sponsored by Saudi, Kuwaiti, Pakistani, and other organizations but found a limited following (Malashenko 1998). But as the economic crises across the region worsened throughout the 1990s, and as political and religious repression intensified, other analysts began to argue that the traditional forces of social cohesion were weakening and fragmenting, especially among young people and students (International Crisis Group 2001, 2003a; Rashid 2002). In fact, the Central Asian republics and Azerbaijan are among the world's least open societies, typified by increasingly authoritarian political systems, widespread corruption, growing poverty, and sharpening social inequality, all of which has led to rising social tensions and legitimacy crises. 1 Constituting more than half the population in each country, young people have been negatively affected by intensifying political repression and worsening economic conditions. 2 Facing declining educational access and equity, deteriorating educational quality, unemployment, and poverty, young people are often characterized as a "generation at risk" (Bauer et al. 1998; Zouev 1999; International Crisis Group 2003b). Today, young Central Asians are clearly disadvantaged in many aspects of life compared with their parents' generation. The sharp economic decline of the 1990s has worsened poverty across the region, with the percentage of the population living below the poverty line constituting more than 80 percent in Tajikistan, 60 percent in Azerbaijan, 55 percent in Kyrgyzstan, and 35 percent in Kazakhstan (UNDP 2001). Furthermore, economic decline increased unemployment, particularly among young people. For example, UNICEF estimates of unemployment among out-of-school youth ages 15-24 are 57.9 percent in Uzbekistan, 49.3 percent in Azerbaijan, 40.6 percent in Tajikistan, 30.8 percent in Kazakhstan, and 24.8 percent in Kyrgyzstan (UNICEF ICDC 2002). In particular, the data reflect the fall in demand for low-skilled workers and employers' growing preference for youths with relevant vocational education and professional experience. Finally, throughout the region, there are few opportunities for young 1 According to Freedom House (2005), the Central Asian nations are the least democratic in the former socialist bloc. Based on its 1-7 rating system (with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of democratic development), these countries have scored the lowest in terms of democratic development. In particular,

Education in the Soviet system from the 1920s was a primary agency of radical socio-cultural transformation. The strategy of the Communist Party of the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (established 1922) was to mobilise the masses by co-opting them into the ideological project and vision. The Party management of intellectual, moral and social instruction was planned to ensure socialisation, social integration, and social order. Education also assisted in the formation of state and national identities. In Central Asia, as in the Russia, the aim of this policy was to create a new consciousness in the minds of the people which would be based on the collective model. This new worldview was to provide the populace with a reason for political obligation towards the Party. It also gave the regime legitimacy and authority. Soviet education was core in the secularization programme instigated to replace traditional and Muslim attitudes, values, beliefs, and social structures. Furthermore, education within Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan was designed to create patriotic industrious workers. Overall, the Soviet educational system was a social construction which under the circumstances improved the quality of life for the masses (especially the poor, young men, and urban women).

Education in the Soviet system from the 1920s was a primary agency of radical socio-cultural transformation. The strategy of the Communist Party of the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (established 1922) was to mobilise the masses by co-opting them into the ideological project and vision. The Party management of intellectual, moral and social instruction was planned to ensure socialisation, social integration, and social order. Education also assisted in the formation of state and national identities. In Central Asia, as in the Russia, the aim of this policy was to create a new consciousness in the minds of the people which would be based on the collective model. This new worldview was to provide the populace with a reason for political obligation towards the Party. It also gave the regime legitimacy and authority. Soviet education was core in the secularization programme instigated to replace traditional and Muslim attitudes, values, beliefs, and social structures. Furthermore, education within Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan was designed to create patriotic industrious workers. Overall, the Soviet educational system was a social construction which under the circumstances improved the quality of life for the masses (especially the poor, young men, and urban women).

The aim of this article is to introduce an ecosystemic approach to mentoring, inspired by the theory of ecologies of practices (Kemmis, Edwards-Groves, Wilkinson, & Hardy, 2012). It is suggested that relationships between practices and their environment resemble in many ways the relationships between natural organisms and ecosystems. From this perspective, mentoring is understood as a social practice that exists in the midst of other social practices and derives its essential qualities and its existence from its relation to other practices. The theory of ecologies of practices is based on the conception of practices as ‘living entities’. From the perspective of ecologies of practice, practices of mentoring and induction can be regarded as ecosystems of their own within the wider ecosystems of social, political and educational practices. In the research literature, the concept of ecosystem has been represented in a number of different variations. The concept was first introduced in e...

Islamic education has a long history in the Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan, that has among the most famous Islamic educational institutions. When the country was occupied by Tsarist Russia, these institutions were allowed to continue as before. There were more than 10,000 maktabs teaching Islamic matters. However, under the Soviet rule, all such institutions were closed down and children were taught by mullās at home. The contacts with the Arab countries were stopped. In the 1980s, with the Glasnost, there was a revival of the Islamic education. After the Civil War (1992–1997), the Tajik State reinforced its control and regulation of Islamic education. In 2010, some 20 madrasahs existed. This chapter makes an overview of Islamic education in Tajikistan.