The Challenges of Educational Transfer and Borrowing
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The global economy has opened doors to worldwide travel, the Internet and easy access to information. It is possible to know just about as much (or even more!) about a certain part of the world just by researching via the Internet than it was many years ago by physical travel to that location. This ease of access to information and travel has allowed for an exchange of ideas unparalleled in History, facilitating the emulation of good (or bad) ideas and practices. This copying is known technically as “educational policy borrowing or transfer.”
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The Challenges of Educational Transfer and Borrowing
- 1. The Challenges of Educational Transfer and Borrowing Sidney Leite Northcentral University
- 2. Introduction • In a globalized economy, communication and travel between countries is easier than ever before • The ease of worldwide travel and access to information from other countries or regions allow for the exchange of ideas and the emulating of what some consider to be better practices or policies as seen elsewhere • This “emulating” is more technically known as “educational policy borrowing or transfer”
- 3. Definition • Educational or policy borrowing • “copying or emulating successful practice as it is manifest in other countries” (Phillips &Schweisfurth, 2007) • “a rational and objective quest to identify and learn from the evidence concerning the universal features of best practice” (Morris, 2012)
- 4. Definition • Borrowing is a three-stage process (Phillips &Schweisfurth, 2007): • “Identification of successful practice” • “Introduction into the home context” • “Assimilation”
- 5. Why borrow? • There are many possible reasons why a country, a system or a school should borrow educational practices from others. Among them: • To improve at home (Halls, 1990) • To remain competitive in the world • To gain a better understanding of society (Durkheim, 1982)
- 6. Benefits of borrowing • A few possible benefits of educational borrowing: • The ideas have been tested and seem to work elsewhere • There is no need to reinvent the wheel • The case for change is more easily made • It allows for the establishment of new benchmarking data at home • It allows for a model to be followed, giving structure to something that lacked it at home
- 7. Benefits of borrowing • An example of educational borrowing and cooperation is the UNIBRAL program that links Brazilian universities with the German higher education system (Jazdi, De Lucena&Göhner, 2006). • Positive changes to curriculum • More courses • New practical experiments.
- 8. Cautions when borrowing • Caution is called for when borrowing/transferring educational policies: • The target may have a very different socio-economic- political reality than the source • The target may not fully understand all that is involved in the implementation of the source‟s policies • Borrowing should not be used for “quick fixes” (Phillips & Ochs, 2003)
- 9. Cautions when borrowing • An example of caution when borrowing educational policies is the Continuing Vocation Training in Europe • Germany, France and the U.K. have tried to implement practices from other nations in their training programs, but with limited success • A researcher has pointed out that the limited success is due to the fact that “education and training systems are embedded within a wider societal, institutional and cultural context that limits the success of transfer” (Turbin, 2001).
- 10. The McKinsey Report • The McKinsey Report (McKinsey & Company, 2010) provides very important lessons extracted from a study of schools that demonstrated superior improvement. These lessons should provide policymakers guidance when borrowing educational policies and practices: • “A system can make significant gains from wherever it starts” • “There is too little focus on „process‟ in the debate today” • “Each particular stage of the school system improvement journey is associated with a unique set of interventions” • “A system‟s context might not determine what needs to be done, but it does determine how it is done” • “Six interventions occur equally at every performance stage for all systems” • “Systems further along the journey sustain improvement by balancing school autonomy with consistent teaching practice”
- 11. Conclusion • There are several factors that need to be taken into consideration when borrowing educational policies, and some of the most important are: • Educational policy borrowing/transfer has serious implications and can fundamentally impact how education takes place in the target location • The social, political, economic, and cultural background of the source and the target all affect the implementation and outcomes • Important lessons learned through academic studies, such as the McKinsey Report (McKinsey & Company, 2010) really matter • The process by which the changes take place is extremely important
- 12. References Durkheim, E. (1982). The rules of sociological method and selected texts on sociology and its method. London: Macmillan. Halls, W. (ed.). (1990). Comparative education: Contemporary issues and trends. London: Jessica Kingsley, UNESCO Jazdi, N.; De Lucena, V.; &Göhner, P. (2006). UNIBRAL: An educational and research cooperation between Brazil and Germany. In Frontiers in Education Conference: 36th Annual (pp. 20-25). McKinsey &Company(2010).How to world's most improved school systems keep getting better. Retrieved from http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/education/how-the-worlds-most-improved-school- systems-keep-getting-better_download-version_final.pdf Morris, P. (2012). Pick "n” mix, select and project; Policy borrowing and the quest for ”world class" schooling: An analysis of the 2010 schools white paper. Journal Of Education Policy, 27(1), 89-107. Phillips, D. & Ochs, K. (2003). Processes of policy borrowing in education: some explanatory and analytical devices. Comparative Education, 39(4), pp. 451-461. Phillips, D. &Schweisfurth, M. (2007). Comparative and international education: An introduction to theory, method and practice. New York: Continuum Books. Turbin, J. (2001). Policy borrowing: Lessons from European attempts to transfer training practices. International Journal Of Training And Development, 5(2), pp. 96-111.
Editor's Notes
- The global economy has opened doors to worldwide travel, the Internet and easy access to information. It is possible to know just about as much (or even more!) about a certain part of the world just by researching via the Internet than it was many years ago by physical travel to that location. This ease of access to information and travel has allowed for an exchange of ideas unparalleled in History, facilitating the emulation of good (or bad) ideas and practices. This copying is known technically as “educational policy borrowing or transfer.”
- There are many possible definitions for “educational borrowing” or “policy borrowing.” Phillips and Schweisfurth (2007) define it from an international perspective, whereas Morris (2012) has a more global definition that can be used for intra-country situations.
- The process of borrowing is complex and can take years to implement. Phillips and Schweisfurth (2007) break the process down into three stages. During “Identification of successful practice,” the target sees things that it likes in the source and compares itself with those practices and performance. In the “Introduction into the home context” stage, the target attempts to pass laws or implement the practices that it identified as beneficial for itself. In the “Assimilation” stage, the practices or laws are becoming a part of the target system.
- There are many reasons why a country, a system or a school should borrow educational practices. The improvement of the “home” system is probably what drives most borrowing (Halls, 1990). But there are other possible reasons as well, such as remaining competitive in the world (a pressure most governments are now feeling) or even to gain a better understanding of society (Durkheim, 1982).
- The benefits of educational borrowing are numerous. Among them, we may include the fact that the ideas have been tested and seem to be working somewhere else. Also, by borrowing there is no need to create a new system or policy from scratch, but rather one may adapt an existing policy/system that is already working in another country, district, or school. Another benefit of educational borrowing is the fact that it makes it easier to argue for change when the change that is sought has been already implemented successfully elsewhere. Also, educational borrowing allows for the establishment of new benchmarking data at home, making comparison and improvement substantially more scientific and accurate. Finally, through borrowing, home institutions/schools/districts/countries can follow a model that already has its details spelled out, allowing for a structure to be implemented at home where none (or a deficient one) was in place before.
- An example of successful educational policy borrowing is the recent partnership between some Brazilian and German universities, as presented by Jazdi, De Lucena and Göhner (2006). The program known as UNIBRAL brings together Brazilian universities that are looking to enhance their curriculum, allowing them to “borrow” curricular practices from German institutions. As a result, for example, the University of Manaus (in the heart of the Amazon jungle) has now seen very positive changes to its curriculum, including more and redesigned courses, and the inclusion of new practical experiments that had not been done before. This type of informed, partnership-based policy borrowing seems to be working well in this situation.
- There are many potential negative factors involved in educational policy borrowing/transfer. Among them is the fact that the context of the target country/school/system may be very different from that of the source. What works for the source may not necessarily work for the target. Also, the target may not fully understand all the facts that are involved in the implementation of the source’s policies. Finally, Phillips and Ochs (2003) warn policymakers not to look for quick fixes when borrowing educational practices from other countries or systems. What may seem simple at first may turn out to be very complicated and complex once the target attempts to implement the changes.
- When trying to borrow educational policies and implement changes to their vocational training programs, France, Germany and the U.K. found more difficulties than previously estimated. Some of these difficulties had to do with structural differences between the source and target countries, but as Turbin (2001) points out through her research, there were other, deeper factors that played a role in the obstacles to successful implementation of borrowed policies: the societies were different in substantial ways, as were the cultures and the institutions of the source and target countries.
- The McKinsey Report (McKinsey & Company, 2010) is an excellent source of comparison and ideas for school systems that are striving to become better. Based on studies of school systems that have demonstrated superior improvement rates, the report summarizes its findings and provides six important lessons that should inform policy and decision makers when considering the borrowing/transfer of educational policies and practices. The six lessons show that there are some systemic problems, but also demonstrate that special attention is needed to ensure that how things are implemented is compatible with what needs to be changed.
- This overview of educational borrowing and transfer provides a brief summary of the advantages and caution that researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders must take into consideration when considering the importation/exportation of ideas and practices. Some of the most important lessons learned are that educational borrowing/transfer can change fundamentally how education takes place in the target country/district/system. When implementing changes, it is extremely important to take into consideration many background factors, such as the different structural, political, cultural and social make-ups of both the source and the target. The McKinsey Report (McKinsey & Company, 2010) has valuable lessons that school systems can use when implementing changes aimed at improving their performance. Finally, the process by which changes take place is of extreme importance.