The term 'Global Britain' was widely used by the UK government between 2016 and 2021 to signal its ambition to reorient the nation's foreign policy on departure from the European Union. There was, however, considerable uncertainty about what the term meant beyond this, with some commentators suggesting that it denoted a de-prioritising of…

In early childhood education (ECE), global policy discourses influence national policy frameworks for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices. Although aspects of these discourses travel across national boundaries via policy borrowing, we argue that consideration is needed of the cultural-historical evolution of country-level systems, their…

While reference societies as an "externalization" process are often used to justify borrowing policies from abroad, a concerted attempt to understand how "power" influences this process, particularly regarding "semiperipheral" references to the periphery, remains absent. This article explores the externalization…

Countries in the global South, such as Pakistan, face challenges to determine their education policies without any external pressures. The national sphere of authority of the state has to deal with both global and national policy pressures. The travelling policy gets embedded in the local context adjusting to the local demands. However, for this…

Background/purpose: Gender inequality in higher education remains a persistent issue that hinders the equitable access and participation of both women and men in the academic field. This study aims to analyze global research trends in gender inequality in higher education from 1993 to 2024, focusing on how these trends are reflected in…

There has been a transnational policy convergence in introducing professional standards for school leaders, and it constitutes a dominant discourse on school leadership. Focusing on the adoption of external references in policy transfer, this article presents a case in which the global leadership discourse was transferred to China, and the Chinese…

This paper presents a critical review of theoretical models on institutional internationalization in higher education. Over the past three decades, scholars have proposed numerous frameworks to understand internationalization processes, yet gaps persist in their practical application and integration. Through a systematic and evaluative examination…

Since the late 1980s, Taiwan has moved away from Mandarin-only language policy in favour of greater recognition of local Taiwanese languages as part of a greater localisation movement. While continuing to implement language policies aimed at promoting local Taiwanese languages, in December 2018, Taiwan announced intent to implement a bilingual…

This paper addresses the issue of how local and global norms and requirements are negotiated in the early stages of development of Social Science research ethics policy in a Global South context. A review of relevant literature followed by analysis of relevant national and institutional policies highlights both tensions and creative potential for…

Globalisation has driven the pursuit of more active citizenship forms. Many governments see educational policies as critical to preparing young citizens with the necessary skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours to thrive in a changing global context. However, what active citizenship education is and means varies across countries. Little is…

Purpose: The article examines the ways in which professional associations representing those working in international education are able to shape national systems and thereby change the ways in which the country engages internationally. This is particularly significant for Australia, which has one of the world's most internationalised higher…

This article analyzes the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) education policy using a critical policy discourse approach. At the textual level, this paper focuses on policy framing by identifying how diagnostic (problem definition), prognostic (solutions), and motivational (rationales) framings are described in two foundational BRI education…

Forming part of the efforts to internationalise European higher education, international student mobility has become a key activity strongly supported and promoted by policymakers. In particular, the mobility of teacher students has become a more prominent issue over the past decades. However, to this date there is a lack of research focussing on…

This article analyses contradictions in the Thai engagement with UNESCO discourse by examining how concepts relating to Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education have been interpreted in key national policies. Thai education policy discourse signals convergence with certain aspects of the international sustainability…

A plethora of scholars investigate how policies spread globally. This paper establishes an analytical framework to structure empirical macro-quantitative research on global education policy spread and enable this analysis to be more comprehensive. Different theories and concepts of drivers for education policy are structured into three distinct…