Education policy and its international dimension: theoretical approaches

Abstract

The international dimension of education policies has been widely discussed in the last couple of years. This article argues that the activities of international agents involved in education policy formulation cannot be entirely and exclusively understood from a national perspective and, thus, should be studied as a discrete level of analysis. Questioning how we might best conceptualize this field of study, this paper presents three theoretical approaches - neoinstitutionalism/isomorphism, externalization, and the international regime theory. The focus here is laid on the analysis of international education policy based on international regime theory.