How do you analyze the influence of international actors and ideas in the making of national education policies? A proposed framework and its application to a case from El Salvador

Authors

  • D. Brent Edwards Jr. University of Tokyo, Japan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22n12.2014

Keywords:

Education policy, formation processes, formulation of policies, mechanisms, dynamics, international influence, El Salvador, Latin America, international organizations, globalization

Abstract

This article focuses on a range of different academic perspectives related to how international actors and ideas affect national processes of education policy production. Specifically, four distinct perspectives from the literature on education policy are presented, and it is suggested that these perspectives can be combined to serve as an analytic framework for understanding this issue – that is, how international actors and ideas impact the formation of education policies at the national level. The four perspectives presented are: (a) policy attraction, (b) policy negotiation, (c) policy imposition, and (d) policy hybridization. The second purpose of this article is to define the underlying phenomenon to which each of the perspectives pertains. Such a term is necessary because, while various perspectives exist on the influence of international actors and ideas, there is not a common language to discuss this phenomenon, nor a clear understanding of its conceptual limits. The term suggested and delineated here is international processes of education policy formation. The third purpose of the present article is to apply the framework presented to the formation of an education policy – Plan 2021 – in El Salvador during 2003–2005. Through this case, three mechanisms are identified which help to explain the dynamics of national education policy formation, namely: percolation, reverberation, and structural legitimation.

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Author Biography

D. Brent Edwards Jr., University of Tokyo, Japan

D. Brent Edwards Jr. obtuvo su doctorado en política educativa internacional de la Universidad de Maryland, EEUU. El enfoque central de su investigación actual aborda los principios y la evolución del programa “Educación con Participación de la Comunidad” en El Salvador durante 1988-1995, analizando no sólo los orígenes poco conocidos de este programa sino también la manera en que este programa se convirtió en un modelo global que ha sido emulado por muchos países del mundo. Anteriormente, obtuvo su maestría en ciencias de la educación de la Universidad de Pennsylvania. Ha trabajado con el Banco Mundial, la Organización de Estados Americanos, la Universidad de California en Berkeley, la Universidad de George Washington en Washington D.C., la Universidad de Ámsterdam en Holanda y la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona en España.

Published

2014-02-24

How to Cite

Edwards Jr., D. B. (2014). How do you analyze the influence of international actors and ideas in the making of national education policies? A proposed framework and its application to a case from El Salvador. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22, 12. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22n12.2014

Issue

Section

Articles