At the end of the course, the students:
- Can identify and understand the dynamics of policy transfer, including in their own countries;
- Is able to engage in debates on topics related with educational governance and policy making;
- Think critically about the influences that international/transnational organisations have in their countries, being able to analyse its role in the national policy-making.

The students will be introduced to:

-          Topics related with contemporary international influences in education and policy transfer;

-          The influence of international/transnational actors (as OECD) in steering national policy-making;

-          International large scale assessments and the reference to the “best performers” in education (i.e. Finland, Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc.);

-          PISA as a tool for reform legitimisation at the national level;

-          The role of PISA in the formation of new ‘reference societies’.

Attendance, pre-class assignments, active participation in classroom debates, quality of final essay.

- Sellar, S. & Lingard, B. (2013). The OECD and global governance in education. Journal of Education Policy.28, 5, p. 710-725.

- Sellar, S. & Lingard, B. (2013). Looking East: Shanghai, PISA 2009 and the reconstitution of reference societies in the global education policy field. Comparative Education, 49, 4, p. 464-485.

- Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2002). Re-framing educational borrowing as a policy strategy. In M. Caruso & H-E. Tenorth (Eds.). Internationaliseierung/internationalization – Semantik und Bildungssystem in Vergleichender Perspective/Comparing Educational Systems and Semantics (p. 57 – 89). Frankfurt a-m. Main: Peter Lang.

- Takayama, K. (2009). Politics of Externalization in reflexive times: Reinventing Japanese education reform discourses through ‘Finnish PISA success’. Comparative Education Review, 54, 1, 51-74.

- Takayama, K., Waldow, F., & Sung, Y-K. (2013). Finland has it all? Examining the media accentuation of ‘Finnish Education’ in Australia, Germany and South Korea. Research in Comparative and International Education, 8, 3, 307-325.

Max 20 students.