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The power of numbers and networks: understanding the mechanisms of diffusion of educational models

This special issue has born from an international workshop held in June 2013 at the School of Education of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Among different themes discussed during three intense days at the Mount Scopus around ‘International and comparative education’ three main topics appeared to attract the attention of scholars. The first was in regard to the ‘power of numbers’, meaning the way we imagine education systems (Rizvi 2006) through numbers (league tables of different sorts, national or international testing) also impacts upon our educational choices. Our vision of education by numbers shapes education policies in particular ways, in turn reinforcing their instrumental aspects as well as contributing to what recent research reveals: the development of an expanding global edu-business. The second topic relates to the complexity of the education global governance network and the role of international governmental organisations (IGOs), such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (WB) within the network. The discussion is not about the influence of the IGOs on education policies, a topic that has attracted research already, but rather to introduce a nuanced review of their functions. Recent research focuses on how IGOs carry out policy, on the intricate ways an educational concern becomes part of the international agenda (i.e., adult education), as well as the limits of IGOs prescriptions – meaning the local conditions that enable or hinder the implementation of an international agenda (i.e., inclusive education). The third topic concerns conceptual and methodological questions. Policymaking is increasingly dynamic and involves many different stakeholders, including states, private corporations, IGOs, scholars and non-profit organisations. Researchers are confronted with multi-spatial, fluid and ever-changing phenomena which traditional concepts and methodologies are unable to capture fully. Thus, as we will see, the authors in this special issue devote a significant part of their articles to adapt conceptual tools or develop alternative analytical frameworks and methodologies.