Time in Education Policy Transfer: The Seven Temporalities of Global School Reform

by Gita Steiner-Khamsi

Overview

This open access book investigates a topic underexplored in policy transfer: time. Drawing on well-known theories from comparative education, public policy studies, political science, and sociology, but written in an easy-to-understand language, the author discusses seven temporalities of policy transfer: historical period, future, sequence, timing, lifespan, age, and tempo. The temporal dimension helps us understand when the current school reform, known as the school-autonomy-with-accountability reform, developed into a global script, why it conquered the globe, and how it was selectively adopted and translated into each local context. Also, for the first time in this book, the author demonstrates what exactly diffused and what “stuck,” that is, which features of the reform were eventually institutionalized. Internationally renowned for her seminal work on policy borrowing, the author systematically applies a comparative, transnational, and global perspective to capture the role of the OECD and the World Bank in advancing and accelerating the reform’s worldwide diffusion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031825231
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	04/11/2025
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

Gita Steiner-Khamsi is the William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA, and the Honorary UNESCO Chair of Comparative Education Policy at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. She published fourteen books (two monographs, twelve edited volumes) and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on policy transfer/policy borrowing, school reform research, qualitative comparative policy studies, and global governance. She is co-editor of the Qualitative Comparative Policy Studies section of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, Past President of the (US) Comparative and International Education Society, and former series editor of the World Yearbook of Education (Routledge).

Table of Contents

Part I The Study of Policy Transfer in Education.- 1. Traveling Reforms from a Comparative, Transnational, and Global Perspectives.- 2. Encounters with the Global Reform.- Part II Time in Policy Transfer.- 3. The Evolution of a Global Script: The Present, Future, and Sequence of Reforms.- 4. Reception and Translation into the Local Context: The Timing, Lifespan, and Age of Reforms.- 5. On the Global/Local Nexus and the Late Adopter/Early Adopter Interaction: The Tempo of Diffusion.- Part III Analyzing Time: Implications for Theory and Practice.- 6. Conclusions.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A deep and sophisticated exploration of how policy transfer unfolds over time, a must-read for everyone interested in the dynamics of global diffusion.” (Andreas Wimmer, Columbia University, USA)

“Steiner-Khamsi offers a masterful and agenda-setting analysis of temporality in education reform that will shape debates for many years to come. The book will be indispensable for scholars and practitioners in comparative education.” (Patricia Bromley, Stanford University, USA)

“This book provides a compelling analysis of school reforms from an international perspective, skillfully disentangling the multiple dimensions of time in global policy transfers. An essential read for students, practitioners, researchers and anyone interested in education and policy studies.” (Osmany Porto de Oliveira, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil)

“With a magisterial command of comparative public policy theories, Steiner-Khamsi places time at the center of education policy transfer research. Her groundbreaking framework, rooted in seven distinct temporal dimensions, not only deepens our understanding of school-autonomy-with-accountability reforms but also redefines the analytical perspective on policy diffusion and institutionalization across diverse contexts.” (Antoni Verger, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)