Soft governance, international organizations, and education policy convergence : comparing PISA and the Bologna and Copenhagen processes

This book examines the extent to which international organizations have shaped reforms in education and training in federalist countries with regards to policy convergence. In advanced democracies, international organizations have become increasingly influential in government activity. This also applies to policy fields that have traditionally been nearly exclusively regulated by the nation-state. How strong is their influence in policy fields like education where they rely on purely soft governance to stimulate national policies? From a political science perspective, three major initiatives are analyzed: the OECD’s PISA study, the European Bologna process and the European Union’s Copenhagen process. Within a few years, these initiatives have contributed to deep transformations within the education arena. This book elucidates the processes in which nation-states comply with these initiatives, using the examples of Switzerland and the United States. Tonia Bieber is Policy Advisor to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany. Before, she was Senior Researcher at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe ‘Transformative Power of Europe’ of Otto-Suhr-Institute, Free University of Berlin, and at the Collaborative Research Center ‘Transformations of the State’, University of Bremen, Germany. She has published on multilevel governance, international organizations, European integration in education and training policies, and policy convergence. She is the co-editor of Shaping Inequalities: Welfare State Transformation and its Outcomes Front Matter....Pages i-xix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Education in Transition: An Empirical Puzzle....Pages 3-24 Measuring Convergence in Education Policy....Pages 25-43 Soft Governance and Voluntary Policy Convergence: A Theoretical Framework....Pages 45-81 Education Policy-Making in Switzerland: Origins and Trends....Pages 83-110 Front Matter....Pages 111-111 Swiss Reforms in Compulsory Education: Drawing Lessons from PISA’s Revelations....Pages 113-148 Swiss Reforms in Higher Education: The Poster Child of the Bologna Process....Pages 149-184 Swiss Reforms in Vocational Education and Training: Cherry-Picking from the Copenhagen Process....Pages 185-211 Front Matter....Pages 213-213 Explaining Convergence in Education Policy....Pages 215-241 Soft Governance in Education: Lessons and Prospects....Pages 243-257 Back Matter....Pages 259-273