This article traces the emergence of the world culture theory in comparative education using critical discourse analysis. By chronicling the emergence and expansion of world culture theory over the past four decades, we highlight the (unintended) limitations and exclusive regimes of thought that have resulted. We argue that the theory's…

Neo-institutionalist theory of global "isomorphism", or so-called World Culture Theory (WCT), has been much debated in comparative education. One notable feature of the debate is that the vast majority of its participants belong to a handful of closely knit comparative education communities. Ironically enough then, a debate that…

This article revisits the newly "discovered" island that world culture theorists have repeatedly utilised to explain their theoretical stance, conceptual preferences and methodological approach. Yet, it seeks to (re)connect world culture with the real world by replacing their imagined atoll with a real one--the island-nation of Japan. In…

World culture theory (WCT) offers an explanatory framework for macro-level comparative analyses of systems of mass education, including their structures, accompanying policies and their curricular and pedagogical practices. WCT has contributed to broader efforts to overcome methodological nationalism in comparative research. In this paper, we…

This article explores the expansion of feminist ideas as both a conceptual and a political issue. It focuses on two major theories of social change, world culture theory (WCT) and world system analysis (WSA), comparing and contrasting how they frame gender as a factor shaping society, how they account for the diffusion of feminist ideas and how…

This article explores why we see educational accountability systems circulating transnationally. It argues that researchers in the field of comparative and international education need to use the concepts of diffusion and translation to think about the formation, coordination and extension of networks and discursive formations through which…

This paper outlines the basis of an alternative theoretical approach to the study of the globalisation of "education"--a Critical, Cultural Political Economy of Education (CCPEE) approach. Our purpose here is to bring this body of concepts--critical, cultural, political, economy--into our interrogation of globalising projects and…

Globalising processes are shifting the established nation-building project of twentieth-century national education systems. This historic axis between education and territorialised state power is being re-spatialised and remade as a globally networked, lifelong learning educational order. Political sociology of education theorises these de- and…

This article addresses the possibilities for adult educators to exercise professional agency in contexts which have become dominated by neoliberalism. It draws on research undertaken in England and New Zealand which investigated the impact of global discourses and policies on experienced adult educators whose philosophy of practice was orientated…

Both the Portuguese appropriation of the lifelong learning policy proposed by the European Union since the mid-1990s and the definition of adult education policy in Portugal were based on a discourse that emphasised an "unacceptable educational deficit" for democracy. The role of the State in the "governance" of the public…

This paper explores the relationship between global, regional and local influences on adult literacy policy and practice in the UK through a discourse analysis of policy-related texts. The analysis is framed by theoretical perspectives from literacy studies and socio-material theory. The paper identifies a number of specific features in the UK…

Despite the fact that immigration has played an important role in transforming Canada into an ethno-culturally diverse and economically prosperous nation, immigrants themselves are often criticised as passive citizens. This study attempts to deconstruct this myth by investigating the volunteering experiences of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver. The…

This paper explores the role of media in shaping adult literacy discourse and policy in Canada. The authors show how journalists, newspapers and other media personalities have directly and indirectly influenced (1) government and public perception of adult literacy and (2) the creation of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and…

Constructions of femininity and attendant notions of feminism are being produced in different ways in different places around the world. This is a complicated global process that cannot be reduced to analyses that take place in nation states. This paper seeks to respond to and enhance Angela McRobbie's compelling argument about understandings…

This paper explores one example of an international comparison -- the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) -- in order to investigate the power of numbers in both the shaping and the legitimisation of adult literacy policy using Scotland as a case study. It is argued that policy…