Reciprocal Cross-school Attraction in Domestic Educational Policy Borrowing: An Initial Conceptualization

Abstract

This article presents a novel theoretical framework for the study of educational policy borrowing at the sub-national level. Prior theorizing on educational policy transfer, and on policy ‘borrowing’ in particular, has focused on cross-national processes. In this article the author uses the existing cross-national models of Phillips and Ochs and of Rappleye to develop a conceptualization of how and why educational ideas and practices move between schools of the same country. Domestic policy borrowing is of theoretical interest to the field of comparative education because it demands exploration of reciprocal cross-school attraction, a phenomenon that does not have much relevance at an international scale. Further, domestic policy borrowing is of practical interest in England because of the role that it plays in deliberate government attempts to improve the lowest-performing schools. By articulating a theoretical framework for the study of reciprocal cross-school attraction, the author hopes to facilitate more systematic and comparable research on how and why educational ideas and practices move between schools. Results from his own empirical work using this model will be reported at a later date.