It is argued that in order to understand the ways in which teachers experience their work--including the idiosyncratic ways in which they respond to and implement mandated education policy--it is necessary to take account both of sociological and of psychological issues. The paper draws on original research with practising and beginning teachers,…

The Specialist Schools Programme was launched in England in 1993. Under the programme, schools submit a bid to central government to specialise in specified curriculum areas. To qualify to participate they must raise private sponsorship to contribute to the cost of their development plans and set targets, including targets for pupils' attainment.…

This article responds to Evans' (2002) framework for a research agenda for teacher development. The term teacher learning is introduced as the process by which novice teachers move towards expertise, and a distinction is made between teacher knowing and teacher identity. Cognitivism currently dominates considerations of teacher learning, but there…

It is frequently asserted that schools and local authorities should become "learning organisations" as a pre-condition for school improvement, but there is very little evidence about the specific processes and activities involved in such a transformation. This paper analyses the initial stages of the implementation by a Scottish local authority…

This article suggests that the academic field of study called comparative education must always deal with the intellectual problems produced by the concept of context (the local, social embeddedness of educational phenomena) and transfer (the movement of educational ideas, policies and practices from one place to another, normally across a…

This article deals with the assumptions and implications of the Malaysian policy for "learning from Japan". The article explores the ways in which this policy has effectively been operated in drawing a new geography of "Asia", dislodging colonial legacies in the region and countering the consolidation of other regional blocs. Cross-national…

This paper reflects on the usefulness and applicability of comparative inquiry for policy and practice in education development projects involving universities within the EU or EEA (Socrates, Erasmus, etc.) and especially in technical aid and outreach programmes (Tempus etc.), using concrete examples, exploring the distinctions made in EU…

The article compares the educational policy trajectories of four societies in the South-west Indian Ocean: Madagascar, Mauritius, Ile de la Reunion and South Africa. The main purpose is to trace the political pathways and differing educational policy trajectories of former colonies of Britain and France. Five metaphors are invoked in this paper to…

This paper reports on a case study of the London Education Authority of Barking and Dagenham's borrowing of Swiss educational practices, and the implementation and internalisation of those foreign practices in the teaching of mathematics in primary schools. The study employs analytical frameworks that might be used by policy makers or researchers…

This paper examines the ways in which the results of the OECD Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) have influenced educational discourse in Germany. It argues that the results caused shockwaves in the educational landscape and led to a re-evaluation of other international comparisons which had presented an unfavourable picture of…

In post-genocide Rwanda, education is being seen as a tool for development, reconstruction and reconciliation. This article explores three different ways in which international influence on the education agenda is being experienced, with particular focus on Rwanda as a post-conflict society. The three quite different dimensions and sources of…

The notion of policy "borrowing" in education has been a consistent theme in comparative inquiry in education from the early decades of the 19th century. While there were many countries that benefited from adopting the educational policy of other countries, there has been many cases wherein such action has earned a lot of negative feedback. One…

The article draws on interpretive frameworks from diffusion research and social network analysis to explore one particular "travelling reform"--outcomes-based education--that went global. The argument is made that by virtue of studying late adopters of a travelling reform one is examining globalisation. The cases in point for late adoption are…

Claims are often made in British education about the extent to which policy reforms have been "borrowed" from overseas. Based on interviews with senior civil servants and HMI, this paper addresses the extent to which such claims apply to central government educational policy-making at school level in England between 1985 and 1995. This was a…

The data obtained from high-school seniors for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for the country of Cyprus appear to be contradictory. Although Cypriot students did not perform well in mathematics in elementary school, middle school, and in the non-advanced sectors of high school, students in advanced mathematics…