Global Policy Mobilities in and across Federal Education Systems: theoretical and methodological challenges

• In Event: New directions in comparative education policy (Part 1): Transnational policy dynamics and processes

Proposal

In this presentation we discuss a set of theoretical and methodological challenges that comparative policy research faces when analyzing global education policy mobilities within and across federal systems. We contend that global flows can be reassembled into federal systems of education in different ways, and in ways that contribute to shifts in power relations among actors and organizations (including government departments) at different scales within those systems. We present different examples that question the linear implications of the nested Russian dolls metaphor, showing that while global flows can move vertically from the national to the sub-national, sub-national entities and local authorities can also connect in horizontal and topological ways with global actors and in ways that do not necessarily implicate national-scale policy actors or organizations. Thus, we argue that the dynamics between the global and the federal systems are complex, non-linear, multi-directional and ever changing. There are implications here for doing comparative education policy analysis.

We start by discussing the notion of global policy mobilities and the kinds of theoretical approaches that we suggest can be productive in understanding the flows of power in education policy across spaces. We then move on to conceptualize “the federal” in education. While global flows do not lead toward universal results or linear policy convergence across nations, we also stress the necessity to think about federalism not as singular but in the plural, as federalisms, given the different configurations and historical developments of federal systems of education. To conclude, we highlight four analytic tensions for research on global policy mobilities in and across federal education systems.

First, we argue that comparative analysis of global policy mobilities in federal systems draws attention to the need to develop deep understandings of the political and policy forms, structures and technologies that shape the architectures of governance in different federalisms. Second, when we look comparatively at federalisms in education, close attention is needed to the political and policy arrangements operating at different ‘scales’ within the nation (e.g. national, subnational, local), and the complex interaction between such scales. Thus, while we maintain that there is a need to move beyond the vertical nested dolls metaphor, we should not obscure from view the importance of scales in the making of political and policy systems and the role played by scalar systems in mediating global policy flows. Third, we highlight the importance of considering the distinctive national and subnational politics, cultures, histories, and path dependencies of each federal system. In other words, it is not only that the forms, structures and technologies that make political and policy systems matter, but also that the very conditions of possibility of those systems are deeply informed by what has gone before and what presently exists. Fourth, we point not only to the need for deeper theorization of global policy mobilities in federal systems, but also to methodological approaches aimed at avoiding decontextualization, endless description, and simplistic comparisons of these dynamics.

Authors

• Jason Beech, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne

• Robert L Lingard, Australian Catholic University

• Glenn Savage, University of Melbourne

• Laura C. Engel, The George Washington University