The global diffusion of outcome-based accountability in education is contested, with accounts of universal convergence being challenged by perspectives emphasising heterogeneity across different national or local contexts. This study uses data from PISA to explore, firstly, the spatial and temporal diffusion of accountability across OECD…

Since 2000, girls' education has been an increasingly high-profile concern in international development policy. At the same time, there has been a trend towards the greater production and reliance on quantitative data, indicators and targets in national and international education policy. Scholars have raised concerns about the rise of…

In response to declining results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys, the then governing Swedish coalition in 2010-2014 introduced earlier grading, more extensive national testing and a new standards-based curriculum. These reforms coincided with a greater emphasis on inclusive' education understood in the 'narrow'…

In the present study we provide an interpretation of a general narrative of transnational governance of higher education. All the elements of the narrative--competition, ranking autonomy and accountability--are visibly present in contemporary higher education policy agenda. We examine these not as separate ideas and practices but as an interlinked…

This research review examines trends in recent scholarship concerning primary school literacy instruction in Southern Africa. Past scholarship, particularly that which originated from western researchers, focused on technical or structural issues facing literacy instruction in the region, such as language of instruction, school conditions,…

The author reacts to the World Bank's 1980 Education Sector Policy Paper, highlighting changes in emphasis from the Bank's 1974 report. Part of a theme issue on the World Bank Paper and on aid to educational development in the Third World. (SJL)

This paper examines the characteristics and status of China's primary school teachers and their ability, as members of the intelligentsia, to exert political influence in the formation of educational policy. It is concluded that, in periods when educational policy is of high concern, these teachers have little influence. (SJL)

Norwegian official development assistance to education has been profoundly shaped by the political and ideological attitudes of successive national governments. Yet successive coalition governments of highly-contrastive kinds can alike be seen to have been strongly influenced by the policy content, language and underlying assumptions of World Bank…

Japanese education in the 1980s must strive to improve its quality. These challenges arise at the peak of the education system's quantitative expansion over the past two decades. Further effort must be directed toward diversification and internationalization, which should bring about a fundamental reorientation of Japanese schooling. (Author/SJL)