Education as a Global Positioning Device: some theoretical considerations

In order to compete in a global market, some nation-states are reforming their education systems according to the principles of the ‘new public management’. This is especially the case in nation-states which have a so-called liberal welfare regime: for example, the United States, England and New Zealand. The empirical basis of this convergence remains weak at the global level, but, as a set of ideas, ‘governance’ has some currency. The new ‘governance’ is not the government of old: there are calls for structural looseness: that is, ephemeral networks, partnerships, devolution. A brief consideration of this new mode of management comprises the first part of the analysis. Thereafter, an exploration is undertaken of some of the theories which may explain what is a putative structural convergence in the governance of education across some nation-states. The argument will refer particularly to critical theory and to institutionalist theory. It is argued that neither theory is a sufficient explanation of isomorphic convergence in the pattern of educational governance. Nor are the two theoretical positions easily reconciled.