Cultural Spheres Int Orgs Edu

GLOBAL DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL POLICY
Global Pathways
to Education
Cultural Spheres,
Networks, and International
Organizations
Edited by
Kerstin Martens
Michael Windzio
Global Dynamics
of Social Policy CRC 1342
Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Series Editors
Lorraine Frisina Doetter
University of Bremen
Bremen, Germany
Delia González de Reufels

Bremen, Germany
Kerstin Martens
Bremen, Germany
Marianne Sandvad Ulriksen

University of Southern Denmark
Odense, Denmark
This open access series welcomes studies on the waves, ruptures and
transformative periods of welfare state expansion and retrenchment
globally, that is, across nation states and the world as well as across
history since the inception of the modern Western welfare state in the
nineteenth century. It takes a comprehensive and globalized perspective
on social policy, and the approach will help to locate and explain episodes
of retrenchment, austerity, and tendencies toward de-welfarization in
particular countries, policy areas and/or social risk-groups by reference to
prior, simultaneous or anticipated episodes of expansion or contraction
in other countries, areas, and risks. One of the aims of this series is to
address the different constellations that emerge between political and
economic actors including international and intergovernmental
organizations, political actors and bodies, and business enterprises. A
better understanding of these dynamics improves the reader’s grasp of
social policy making, social policy outputs, and ultimately the outcomes
of social policy.
More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16294
Kerstin Martens • Michael Windzio
Editors
Global Pathways
to Education
Cultural Spheres, Networks,
and International Organizations
Editors
Kerstin Martens Michael Windzio
Institute for Intercultural and International SOCIUM and Collaborative Research
Studies (InIIS) and Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of
Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”
Social Policy” University of Bremen
University of Bremen Bremen, Germany
Bremen, Germany
ISSN 2661-8672 ISSN 2661-8680 (electronic)

Global Dynamics of Social Policy
ISBN 978-3-030-78884-1 ISBN 978-3-030-78885-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78885-8
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On This Series
The intervention of states in fields such as health, social security, and

work, dates back to the nineteenth century, and became more dynamic
over time. Imperial Prussia, a social policy pioneer, first showcased its
progress at the Paris World Fair in 1900: the Prussian exhibit drew large
crowds eager to find out more about state pensions. Clearly, social policy
had become a matter of great interest to states and citizens alike.
Other nations soon embarked on implementing discrete social poli-
cies, thus turning the twentieth century into a time of remarkable welfare
state expansion. The end of World War II marked a new departure, as an
increasing number of countries outside the Western hemisphere began to
introduce social policy measures. States not only copied established forms
of welfare, but often developed measures sui generis to meet their specific
needs. While episodes of policy retrenchment and ruptures can be
observed over time, recent developments point to an expansion of social
policies in low-to-upper-middle-income countries of the Global South.
Social policy has thus become a global phenomenon.
It is generally accepted that the state is responsible for welfare and that
domestic politics and ideas have been a primary driver of its expansion.
However, in an increasingly interconnected world, social policy is imple-
mented at the national level but influenced by international develop-
ments and relations. It is shaped by trade, migration, war, and colonialism.
v
vi On This Series
Just as people travel, policy ideas follow. These factors merit scholarly
attention and demand interdisciplinary collaboration to generate new
insights into the global dimension of social policy.
This is what the Global Dynamics of Social Policy book series sets out
to accomplish. In doing so, it also contributes to the mission of the
Collaborative Research Center 1342 (CRC) “Global Dynamics of Social
Policy” at the University of Bremen, Germany. Funded by the German
Research Foundation, the CRC leaves behind the traditionally OECD-
focused analysis of social policy to stress the transnational interconnect-
edness of developments.
The book series showcases scholarship by colleagues worldwide who
are interested in the global dynamics of social policy. Studies can range
from in-depth case studies, comparative work and large quantitative
research. Moreover, the promotion of scholarship by young researchers is
of great importance to the series.
The series is published in memory of Stephan Leibfried to whom
our research on state and social policy at the CRC is indebted in
countless ways.
Series Editors:
Lorraine Frisina Doetter, Delia González de Reufels, Kerstin Martens,
Marianne S. Ulriksen
Acknowledgments
This book is based on the research conducted in the project A05 “The
Global Development, Diffusion, and Transformation of Education
Systems”, which forms part of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC)
1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” at the University of Bremen.
The Bremen CRC 1342 is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(DFG, German Research Foundation)—project number 374666841—
SFB 1342. As editors, we are grateful to the DFG and the CRC for
having enabled us to conduct this research and to produce this volume.
Draft versions of the chapters have been discussed during an online work-
shop in December 2020 with experts on global education policy. We are
grateful to Camilla Addey, Chanwoong Baek, Jane Gingrich, Aneta
Hayes, Janna Teltemann, and Antoni Verger, who contributed to the
development of this book with their expertise and experience. Special
thanks go to Gita Steiner-Khamsi, who also supported the research in
this project significantly during her Mercator Fellowship at the CRC
1342 in June and July 2020. We also want to thank Gabrielle Bieser,
Nicole Henze, Amelia Price, and Monika Sniegs who took care of the
content alignment of the book.
vii
Praise for Global Pathways to Education
“A central problematic for education policy scholars has been to understand the
relationships between path-dependent national factors and the global diffusion
of ideas, particularly Western rationalism, in constituting education policy. This
collection proffers an empirically-based account that accepts to some extent the
isomorphism argument of neo-institutionalists, but argues that this is mediated
by specific cultural orientations across and within nations, as well as by other
national features. As such, this provocative collection offers challenges to all
education policy scholars and to future research agendas.”
—Bob Lingard, Professorial Fellow, Australian Catholic University
and Professor Emeritus, University of Queensland, Australia
“This bold new book, edited by Kerstin Martens and Michael Windzio, investi-
gates how Western ideas and institutional practices have diffused globally—and
why their uptake varies across culturally distinct groups of countries. Early chap-
ters focus on patterns of isomorphism across nations while later chapters provide
important new evidence on the roles played by international organizations in
the transmission of Western educational ideas and models. Later chapters pro-
vide important new research on familiar international organizations such as
the OECD, the World Bank, and UNESCO—while introducing us to the roles
played by two educational IOs that are less frequently studied, SEAMEO (the
South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization) and ICESCO (Islamic
World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). In a rich dialogue
with the work of John Meyer the book shows convincingly how both isomor-
phic diffusion and cultural variation shape global governance in education.”
—Karen Mundy, Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
“This is a highly important and timely edited collection on a topic of remarkable

and growing significance. The book brings together the work of a dynamic
research team, whose writing and influence in the field of transnational educa-
tion governance cannot be over-stated. Well-theorised and featuring a plethora
of empirical analyses from a range of policy actors and contexts, this book is
thoroughly recommended for students and scholars interested in the field of
education policy and governance in Europe and globally.”
—Sotiria Grek, Professor, University of Edinburgh, UK
Contents
1 The Global Development, Diffusion, and Transformation

of Education Systems: Transnational Isomorphism and
‘Cultural Spheres’ 1
Michael Windzio and Kerstin Martens
2 The Introduction of Compulsory Schooling Around the

World: Global Diffusion Between Isomorphism and
‘Cultural Spheres’ 37
Helen Seitzer, Fabian Besche-Truthe, and Michael Windzio
3 The Global Trajectories of Compulsory Education:

Clustering Sequences of Policy Development 65
Fabian Besche-Truthe
4 Does Globalization Affect the Performance of Secondary

Education Systems? A Coevolution Model of Multiplex
Transnational Networks and Educational Performance 97
Helen Seitzer and Michael Windzio
xi
xii Contents
5 International Organizations in Education: New Takes on

Old Paradigms127
Dennis Niemann
6 Finding the Poster Child: Reference Patterns in OECD

Country Reports163
Helen Seitzer
7 International Organizations and Education in the Islamic

World191
David Krogmann
8 Regional Ideas in International Education Organizations:

The Case of SEAMEO217
David Krogmann
9 Talking About Education: How Topics Vary Between

International Organizations239
Michael Windzio and Raphael Heiberger
10 Education as Cultural Frame267

John W. Meyer
11 Isomorphism, ‘Cultural Spheres’, and Education Systems:

A Brief Summary and Concluding Remarks285
Index303
Notes on Contributors
Fabian Besche-Truthe is a doctoral researcher in the project “The

Global Development, Diffusion and Transformation of Education
Systems” at the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics
of Social Policy” at the University of Bremen. His teaching experience
ranges from introductory courses in statistics as well as academic research
and writing to theories and current evidence of policy diffusion. He is an
author of the Education Section of the “Global Social Policy Digest”. His
main research interests include Social Network Analysis, innovative
quantitative methods, global and domestic influences on education sys-
tems, policy diffusion, and lifelong learning.
Raphael Heiberger is Tenure-Track Professor at the Institute for Social
Sciences of the University of Stuttgart. He is head of the newly founded
Department on Computational Social Science. He received his PhD
from the University of Bamberg (Germany) and was a visiting scholar at
UCLA and a Fulbright-Fellow at UC Berkeley. He is a permanent mem-
ber of the McFarland Lab at Stanford University. Besides various aspects
of Social Network Analysis (dynamics, statistical modeling, theory), his
research interests focus on Natural Language Processing, Bayesian
Statistics (especially Machine Learning), and, more generally, the applica-
tion of computational methods on social phenomena like markets, media
discourse, or inequality.
xiii
xiv Notes on Contributors
David Krogmann is a doctoral researcher in the project “The Global

Development, Diffusion and Transformation of Education Systems” at
the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social
Policy” at the University of Bremen. His teaching experience includes
both International Relations theory and contemporary themes in global
politics. His main research interests are international organizations,
regionalism in education policy, global norms and ideas in education,
sustainable development, as well as climate action. He is the coordinator
for GLOBED—Education Policies for Global Development, an interna-
tional MA double degree program based at four European Universities.
Kerstin Martens is Professor of International Relations at the University
of Bremen, Germany. Her research interests include education policy,
NGOs, and international organizations, in particular the OECD and the
United Nations. She heads the research project A05 “The Global
Development, Diffusion and Transformation of Education Systems” as
part of the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of
Social Policy” at the University of Bremen. She has published widely on
the above-mentioned research areas, including in leading international
journals. She holds a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the
European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
John W. Meyer is Professor Emeritus of Sociology (and, by courtesy,
Education) at Stanford University. He has contributed to organizational
theory, comparative education, the sociology of education, and the devel-
opment of sociological institutional theory. He is a member of the US
National Academy of Education, has honorary doctorates from the
Stockholm School of Economics as well as the Universities of Bielefeld
and Lucerne, and received the American Sociological Association’s sec-
tion awards for lifetime contributions to the sociology of education and
the study of globalization.
Dennis Niemann is a postdoctoral researcher in the project “The Global
Policy” at the University of Bremen. He holds a PhD in Political Science
from the University of Bremen. His research interests include the inter-
Notes on Contributors xv
nationalization of education policy, qualitative methods, and the role of

international organizations in global governance. He has published on
the soft governance influence of international organizations, on domestic
policymaking, and on recent internationalization processes in the field of
education policy in international journals such as German Politics,
Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Global Social Policy, and European
Journal of Education.
Helen Seitzer is a doctoral researcher in the project “The Global
Policy” at the University of Bremen. Her teaching experience includes
introductory courses in statistics as well as on inequality in education.
Her main research interests include innovative quantitative methods, the
international comparison of student achievement, and global as well as
national cultural and economic influences on education policymaking
from a social network perspective.
Michael Windzio is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bremen.
His research interests include the sociology of education, migration and
urban studies, quantitative methods with a focus on longitudinal data,
network analysis, social structure, sociology of organizations, and delin-
quency. He has been a fellow at the Criminological Research Institute of
Lower Saxony and a visiting fellow at Harvard University. He is the editor
of “Integration and Inequality in Educational Institutions” (Dordrecht:
Springer) and coeditor of “A life-course perspective of migration and
integration” (Dordrecht: Springer).
Abbreviations
ABEGS Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States

ADB Asian Development Bank
ALECSO Arab League Cultural, Educational and Scientific Organization
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
BIOTROP SEAMEO Tropical Biology
CEPII Centre d’Études Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales
CERI Centre for Educational Research and Innovation
CPE Cultural Political Economy
EFA Education for All
EU European Union
ERGM Exponential Random Graph Model
ESCS Economic, Social and Cultural Status
ESD Education for Sustainable Development
FTA-WTO WTO Free Trade Agreements
FMI Fowlkes-Mallows Index
GAP UNESCO Global Action Programme
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GIZ Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
ICESCO Islamic World Education, Science and Culture Organization
ICSID International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
IDA International Development Association
xvii
xviii Abbreviations
IEA International Association for the Evaluation of Educational

Achievement
IFC International Finance Corporation
IGOs Intergovernmental Organization
ILO International Labour Organisation
ILSAs International Large-Scale Assessments
IOs International Organizations
ISESCO Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
MOI Medium of Instruction
NGOs Non-governmental Organizations
NIH National Institutes of Health
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OEEC Organisation for European Economic Co-operation
OIC Organization of Islamic Cooperation
OM Optimal Matching
PAM Partitioning around medoids
PISA Programme for International Student Assessment
SAOMs stochastic actor-based models
SDGs Sustainable Development Goals
SEAMEO Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization
SEAMES SEAMEO Secretariat
SEAMOLEC SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Centre
SEARCA Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and
Research in Agriculture
SQA Sequence Analysis
STM Structural topic models
UIA Union of International Associations
UIS UNESCO Institute for Statistics
UN United Nations
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
WB World Bank
Abbreviations xix
WDI World Development Indicators

WEIRD Western, educated, industrialized, resourceful, democratic
WTO World Trade Organization
WWII Second World War
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 Projection of the two-mode network on the country level 14

Fig. 2.1 Diffusion of compulsory education around the world,
1789–2010. (Source: Own computation WeSIS database) 50
Fig. 2.2 Network of cultural spheres in 1880 52
Fig. 3.1 All sequences of the duration of compulsory education policy 76
Fig. 3.2 Sequences grouped by income classification according to the
WDI by the World Bank 77
Fig. 3.3 Sequences grouped by cultural spheres 78
Fig. 3.4 Example sequences (Mexico and Panama from 1990–2010) 81
Fig. 3.5 Sequences grouped by cluster 82
Fig. 3.6 World map showing countries’ membership in clusters of
trajectories of the duration of compulsory education 89
Fig. 4.1 Service sector trade flow in 2012. Export normalized on total
export109
Fig. 4.2 Percentage of exchange students in 2018 depending on the
number of enrolled students 110
Fig. 4.3 Migration stock in 2015 as a percentage of ego’s population
living in the respective alter country 111
Fig. 6.1 Regional country groups according to Maddison 175
Fig. 6.2 Network of references 177
Fig. 6.3 Network of references after 2000 178
xxi
xxii List of Figures
Fig. 8.1 SEAMEO structure. (Own account, data from https://www.

seameo.org/)223
Fig. 9.1 Exclusivity and semantic coherence 247
Fig. 9.2 Held-out log-likelihood 248
Fig. 9.3 Fowlkes-Mallows Index 249
Fig. 9.4 Topic proportions of the ten most important topics, solution
with 70 topics 251
Fig. 9.5 Three most prevalent topics by organization 252
List of Tables
Table 1.1 Spectrum of education leitmotifs 22

Table 1.2 Typology of the education IOs 23
Table 2.1 Diffusion of compulsory education in the cultural spheres
network56
Table 4.1 The coevolution of networks of global trade, migration,
student mobility, and PISA performance 115
Table 6.1 ERGM model for homophily within regional and culture
clusters179
Table 8.1 SEAMEO’s priority areas in education 233
Table 9.1 International organizations (IOs) and number of documents
by category 243
xxiii
1
The Global Development, Diffusion,
and Transformation of Education
Systems: Transnational Isomorphism
and ‘Cultural Spheres’
Introduction1
The purpose of the research presented in this volume is a wide-ranging
analysis and explanation of the dynamics of emergence, diffusion, and
change in relation to state education systems. Countries learn from each
other due to traveling experts and the exchange of personnel. This is an
essential characteristic of modernity, despite the tradition having a long
history dating back to Medieval and Ancient times (Weymann 2014). In
many respects, globalization and corresponding mobility have gained
1
This chapter is a product of the research conducted in the Collaborative Research Center, “Global
Dynamics of Social Policy” at the University of Bremen. The center is funded by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—project number 374666841—
SFB 1342.
M. Windzio (*)
SOCIUM and Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics
of Social Policy”, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
© The Author(s) 2022 1

K. Martens, M. Windzio (eds.), Global Pathways to Education, Global Dynamics of
Social Policy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78885-8_1
2 M. Windzio and K. Martens
considerable momentum since World War II (WWII) and sped up even

more from the 1990s onward and after the end of the Cold War. This was
not only due to new techniques of global communication and the avail-
able traveling infrastructure of the time, but rather it was also attributed
to the increased importance of transnational interlinkages, multinational
companies, and international organizations (IOs). Today, economic
transactions have become progressively organized at a global scale but
also political claims for human and social rights, as well as ideas about the
objectives of education and education policies are distributed globally
(Martens et al. 2014). In this volume, we identify the global pathways to
education and investigate the causes of change of education systems from
a global and historical perspective. We argue that the emergence and
development of education systems can be traced back not only to inher-
ent national factors but also to the international diffusion of ideas.
In essence, we investigate empirically how the global diffusion of
Western-rational educational content and organizational forms proceeds,
as expected by neo-institutionalist theory (Meyer et al. 1997) and whether
culturally specific developmental pathways dominate in different parts of
the world. Taken together, the chapters in this book aim at three different
goals: Firstly, by gathering event and network data, the global horizontal
diffusion of state-organized education systems is investigated for most
countries in the world. In particular, we analyze the timing when state
regulation of compulsory schooling and state financing of the education
system were introduced. Secondly, we map the extent of vertical interde-
pendencies between IOs active in the field of education. IOs develop and
spread educational models and standards globally, and these reach mem-
ber states as well as non-member countries. By means of qualitative docu-
mentary analyses, expert interviews, and topic modeling, we investigate
the educational models propagated by selected IOs. Thirdly, historical
K. Martens
Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS) and Collaborative
Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”, University of
Bremen, Bremen, Germany
1 The Global Development, Diffusion, and Transformation… 3
macro-data is employed to identify the national and international factors

which determine the introduction of and changes to education policy. It
is postulated that in addition to a country’s affiliation with consolidated
regional and cultural networks, state-internal demands on education pol-
icy originating from other subsystems or policy fields are also significant
for both the development and the transformation of educational
statehood.
In the following section, we present a short overview of existing
research in this field concerning our work. We then present the theoreti-
cal framework of our study, which focuses on the tension between the
global institutionalization of Western rationality, on the one hand, and
culturally specific rationales for the development of education, on the
other hand. In essence, we argue that the interplay between horizontal
and vertical interdependencies, as well as the moderating effects of
national factors are still neglected research topics when it comes to the
global development of education policy. The final section provides an
outline of the book structure and our empirical implementation.
ecapturing Research: Education Policy

R
from a Global Perspective
In the context of the advancing globalization of economies and transna-
tional interdependencies arising through migration (Castles et al. 2014),
education systems are expected to maintain national economic competi-
tiveness in world markets while also preparing their graduates for global
competition in labor markets. Education is viewed as a ‘social invest-
ment’ as it creates an economically productive population stratum that
can finance social policy while offering protection against the risks of
unemployment and poverty (Allmendinger and Leibfried 2003).
Furthermore, state education systems fulfill the fundamental task of
socializing the population and inculcating literacy, thus producing well-
integrated citizens (Nagel et al. 2010). Obviously, education is funda-
mental to T. H. Marshall’s (1964 [1949]) “social citizenship”.
Consequently, state education systems are required to fulfill disparate
demands (Windzio 2013) and are simultaneously influenced by national

and international factors. A country’s economic performance, for exam-
ple, influences the configuration of its national education system
(Hanushek et al. 2013). Similarly, party-political ideologies (Ansell 2010)
or religious actors (Yakhyaeva 2013; Brock and Alexiadou 2013)—espe-
cially in Central Asia and some African countries—influence the objec-
tives of education policy. As we know from existing research, the
performance of education systems also varies considerably between coun-
tries and their institutional structures (Teltemann and Windzio 2011,
2019; Hanushek et al. 2013).
Since the late 1970s, the emergence, development, and global diffusion
of different types of education systems have become an object of inquiry in
the social sciences (overviews include: Gift and Webbel 2014; Busemeyer
and Trampusch 2011; Jakobi et al. 2010). In the context of mass inclusion,
studies focus primarily on the structural changes to national education sys-
tems, the changing syllabuses for general education (Meyer 1977; Benavot
and Riddle 1988), and expenditure on the public as well as private educa-
tion (Wolf and Zohlnhöfer 2009). The influence of international organiza-
tions on national education policy has also been outlined, although mainly
in case studies on single IOs (examples include Ydesen 2019; Finnemore
1993 and the contributions in Martens et al. 2007, Grek 2010; Mundy
2007; Bieber and Martens 2011). Various studies, for example, have dem-
onstrated the influence of the World Bank’s (WB) funds on the develop-
ment and direction of national education systems in low-income countries
(e.g. Mundy and Verger 2015). In contrast, international interdependen-
cies that have grown historically over a long period of time, such as colo-
nialism, may be significant, for example, for African countries south of the
Sahara (Brock and Alexiadou 2013) and have received relatively little atten-
tion in studies on global diffusion of education.
Inspired by the neo-institutionalist thesis of the diffusion of modern
forms of rationality and social order, some studies postulate that an anal-
ogous expansion of modern state educational establishments has occurred
and that there is a long-term tendency toward global convergence in edu-
cation systems (Meyer et al. 1992; Jakobi and Teltemann 2011). From
the neo-institutionalist perspective, cultural patterns, rationality criteria,
and institutional structures that emerged in the Occident are spreading
globally, partly due to the influence of IOs and nongovernmental organi-

zations (NGOs) (McNeely and Cha 1994; Finnemore 1993).
Furthermore, formal organizations and bureaucratically organized states
constitute an ideal basis for instrumental action and are likely to spread
globally due to their efficiency (Meyer et al. 1997, 153). However, the
global diffusion of guiding models for state organization can only occur
if the structural precondition of suitable channels for relationships and
exchanges is satisfied. Thus, it is not surprising that recent studies in
international relations increasingly employ methods of network analysis
that can, among other things, describe the linkages between countries
constituted by membership in IOs or through migration (Maoz 2011;
Vögtle and Windzio 2019; Windzio 2018; Windzio et al. 2019).
New approaches in diffusion research emphasize that peculiarities in
network topologies, such as communities that are highly integrated inter-
nally yet isolated externally, can strongly influence the spread of innova-
tion (Centola 2015). Cross-national relationships of exchange can be
highly consolidated regionally, as seen in world regions or cultural spheres
such as those formed among Islamic, Western, Central European, or
West Asian countries. In contrast to Huntington’s tension-laden “fault
lines” (Huntington 1993, 29), cultures can merge or overlap margins
while still pursuing their own developmental paths at the core (Knöbl
2007). In the field of education, the geographical and cultural dimen-
sions of cultural spheres have not been sufficiently investigated as a
potential moderator of isomorphism.
We assume that cultural spheres or regionally consolidated network
topologies structure the diffusion of state education systems. In taking
this approach, neo-institutionalism remains open to the diversity of cul-
tures, and to resistance to the diffusion of Western rationalism (Finnemore
1996, 342). Possible consequences of heterogeneity are creative responses,
recreations, and enrichments of the rationalist framework (Knöbl 2007,
43). However, previous work on the diffusion of state education has often
been restricted to the realm of the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) ‘world’ (Meyer et al. 1992).
Only recently, have scholars extended their perspectives to include more
countries in the world than just the industrialized North (Barro and Lee
2013). Only with such a global perspective can regionally and culturally
specific pathways to education and education policy be detected.
Thus, the existing literature indicates that further research is required,

for example, on the influence of horizontal interdependencies across
countries and vertical interdependencies through IOs in the field of edu-
cation. If education makes a significant contribution to the transmission
of culture, the differentiation in various cultural spheres should influence
the emergence and spread of national state education systems, as well as
any changes in these systems. In addition, the kind and the extent to
which IOs develop and spread ideas about education and education pol-
icy on a global scale has not been examined sufficiently. Also, the ques-
tion remains if specific influences of IOs in individual cultural spheres
can be established that possibly work against a global trend to isomor-
phism. Previous studies have mainly focused on the expansion of the
nation-state as the starting point for universal education (e.g. Boli et al.
1985; Ansell and Lindvall 2013). The influence of IOs as providers of
ideas and impulses for the developmental dynamics of education policy
has largely been overlooked (one exception is Verger 2012). We expect
that not only functional and transnational influences can be identified in
globalization processes. In addition, we expect effects of regional-cultural
consolidation in diffusion networks, ranging from identity-political
countermovements to a possible global trend toward isomorphism.
In response to the previously mentioned desiderata, this volume seeks
to build and expand upon the findings from previous research in several
respects. In light of its theoretical perspective, our book is able to partici-
pate in macro-sociological debates on the reach and form of the diffusion
of Western-modern rationality and forms of order (Krücken 2005).
When appropriate, it is also able to trace empirically the significance of
self-contained regional and cultural paths (Eisenstadt 1986; Knöbl 2007).
We also relate to constructivist studies in international relations as we
examine the potential of IOs to develop and spread ideas, values, and
norms. By combining these fields and applying a wide set of method-
ological tools in this study, we align our research to current studies in
global education governance (Karseth et al. 2021). In the field of educa-
tion policy, it is crucial to analyze these specific paths because education
is inextricably linked with the maintenance and reproduction of culture,
history, religion, and identity. The decisive factors in the evolution, diffu-
sion, and transformation of education policy will be further described in
our theoretical framework, which follows in the next section.
heoretical Framework: Transnational

T
Isomorphism versus Cultural Spheres
in Education
Long-term trends of globalization result from macro- as well as micro-
processes. First and foremost, globalization implies that nation-states
transfer political authority and governance capacities to international or
supranational organizations. However, globalization is also driven from
‘below’ by transnational networks of politicians, experts, or migrants
(Castles et al. 2014). From a sociological perspective, the content of
global diffusion via transnational networks includes monetary transfer
but also institutions, practices, routines, and taken-for-granted knowl-
edge. In this sense, globalization implies a level of cultural convergence.
The globalization debate is at the core of early sociological theory, when
Max Weber (1972) described the evolution and diffusion of rationaliza-
tion, beginning with Protestant sects in Europe and America in the sev-
enteenth century. Interestingly, just a few years after the City of Boston
was founded in 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Company enacted a law to
finance primary schools with local taxes for the purpose of religious edu-
cation (Brock and Alexiadou 2013). Although limited to a selective
group, this early precursor of publicly financed education was invented in
the colony. Much later, with the Education Act of 1870, the British gov-
ernment turned compulsory education into a public matter.
The theoretical debate on the global diffusion of occidental rationalism
has prominently lasted until today, where it is represented by sociological
neo-institutionalism (Meyer et al. 1997). We identify two broad theoreti-
cal strands in this debate. Proponents of the isomorphism thesis expect a
global diffusion of Western rationalization that also affects education sys-
tems. Organizational forms and curricular content might become increas-
ingly similar across the world in the long run. The cultural spheres
concept, in contrast, focuses on different cultural clusters defined by reli-
gious characteristics, gender role orientations, language groups, civil
rights, and rule of law. If two countries share a cultural characteristic,
they establish a link in a network. The more cultural characteristics they
share, the stronger they are tied to each other. This valued cultural
network is a fuzzy set typology of world cultures. It is the pipe structure

through which education policies can spread around the globe. Its topol-
ogy can moderate or also block the diffusion process (Centola 2015). The
network comprises different pathways, even though the assumed general
trend toward isomorphism, for example, in terms of compulsory school-
ing, is rather uncontroversial.
Transnational Isomorphism
The modern wave of globalization since the 1950s resulted from struc-
tural conditions without parallel in world history. Scholars in the social
sciences observed the diffusion of organizational forms and knowledge at
an unprecedented scale. These observations led to the theoretical concept
of isomorphism (Meyer et al. 1997). Indeed, if some bureaucratic organi-
zational forms are more efficient than others (Weber 1972), and if at the
same time international organizations require certain standards of
accountability from their member states, it is far from implausible to
expect that these efficient forms achieve evolutionary success at a global
scale. Nation-states are keen to adopt bureaucratic organizational forms
as instruments for exerting authority in a way that guarantees predictable
obedience and stability, without just relying on coercion and brutal force.
In this regard, education has been crucial in the process of state forma-
tion (Green 2013).
Efficient and modern organizational forms are attractive in the fields of
legislation, administration, policing, and law enforcement. Yet, since
Bismarck introduced the social insurance system, most European policy-
makers are aware that social policy essentially contributes to the legiti-
macy of authority and to political stability in market-based economies.
Contingencies in economic development pose serious risks to the labor
force, particularly to the most vulnerable segments, for example, to the
low-qualified working poor. As a result, social upheaval and political
instability become more likely. Alternatively, neoclassical economists
limit their concepts of social policy to the development of the individual
(Allais 2012). Skill formation, labor market qualification, and profession-
alization—all of which require a sufficient amount of general
education—are supposed to reduce individual levels of vulnerability and

increase economic productivity. Moreover, an increase in productivity
increases the amount of the domestic budget to be redistributed through
social policy programs. In this regard, education policy is either a specific
form of social policy or a functional equivalent.
Social policy can be regarded as a crucial aspect of the ‘one best way to
organize’ (Cummings et al. 2017) from the modern, democratic state’s
perspective. In this view, generating legitimacy by institutionalizing social
policy is an effective approach to smooth government. At the very least,
the normative expectation of rational and efficient authority is institu-
tionalized in a state’s environment. In addition, social policy is evaluated
in global mass communication and by international organizations with
respect to social justice and moral standards. If social policies are not in
line with the institutionalized normative expectations, there will be con-
siderable normative pressure to conform to these expectations (Meyer
et al. 1997).
Bureaucratic authority depends on a minimum level of basic educa-
tion among its inhabitants, who need a certain level of literacy to read
and follow written instructions as well as legal regulations (Weymann
2014). Adopting efficient education policy, however, should also increase
the employability of the labor force and thereby increase productivity, tax
revenues, and the contributions to the social security system. Again, edu-
cation organizations are expected to be accountable and reliable bureau-
cracies with a curriculum that should not be in conflict with the ideologies
needed to provide belief in the legitimacy (Weber 1972) or the ‘legiti-
macy myths’ (Meyer et al. 1997, 160) of the institutionalized order.
Liberal democracies and legal states that guarantee personal freedom to
the individual require citizens who believe in the value of the respective
institutions. Regarding these outcomes and the benefits of education
policy, can we expect a global isomorphism in the forms and content of
education systems? Perhaps it can be expected, even though education
policy has a particular feature: It closely relates to the intergenerational
reproduction of a society’s culture and their collective identities, for
example, ethnic, religious, or national, which all seem to have gained
importance during the last three decades.
Cultural Spheres
Education strongly affects the intergenerational transmission of knowl-

edge, national traditions, identities, and culture more so than other kinds
of social policy, including family policy. Relational sociology agrees with
the view that a particular culture is not an ‘essence’; rather than being a
stable entity, culture is embedded in a network of socially constructed
elements and gains its identity from relations between these elements.
For instance, the valuation of personal autonomy in one culture acquires
its significance in relation to other cultures, just as the relationship with
other socially constructed elements gives a culture its meaning. Rather
than having clearly specified boundaries, elements of cultures are related
to each other like fuzzy set clusters, as we know from social network
analysis (Emirbayer 1997, 299; Emirbayer and Goodwin 1994).
Highlighting the challenges of global cultural differences instead of
their benefits became increasingly controversial from the mid-1990s
when Huntington (1996) responded to Fukuyama’s optimistic view on
the end of history (Fukuyama 1992). Huntington argued that future
global conflicts would occur at religious–cultural ‘fault lines’ separating
different civilizations from each other (Huntington 1996). His work has
been accused of paving the way for anti-multicultural backlash because it
focuses on cultural confrontation rather than on benefits due to diversity
(Perry 2002). Yet, recent studies in evolutionary anthropology and psy-
chology have emphasized the general importance of culture. Culture
played a crucial role in human evolution and even today we are still a
‘cultural species’ (Henrich 2016). For example, early humans’ niche con-
struction was based on the social transmission of knowledge, for example,
on hunting, toolmaking, and food preparation, which even affected
humans’ genetic disposition during evolution. Selective genetic adapta-
tion created the human species whose members are incapable of existing
as isolated individuals without an appropriate social and cultural envi-
ronment (Henrich 2016). Human’s gene-culture coevolution created us
as ‘norm internalizers’, but this came at the cost of a tendency toward
keeping social distance between cultural groups. Norm compliance and
cooperation within groups, particularly in hunter-gatherer bands during
human evolution, was a competitive advantage. However, many social

norms are non-obvious, and “natural selection took advantage of the fact
that the cultural transmission pathways of social norms are often the
same as those for other more observable markers, like language, dialect,
or tattooing practices” (Henrich 2016, 201). Some cultural elements
serve humans’ coalitional psychology and exist for the sole purpose of
signaling group membership and coalitional affiliation (Boyer 2018, 49).
In this view, humans are highly sensitive to sharing observable mark-
ers, which they interpret as indicators of sharing the same ‘tacit’ norma-
tive and cultural sub-universe that is crucial for their survival. Paradoxically,
humans’ inherent tendency toward outgroup hostility is a result of their
deeply ingrained sociality. Since we strongly depend on the social-cultural
and normative environment constructed by our group, any challenge
toward this particular environment would reveal our social vulnerability.
The sensitivity toward indicators of difference even became ‘wired’ in the
neural hardware of our social cognition (Greene 2015; Berns and Atran
2012). Therefore, acknowledging culture as a crucial aspect of the human
condition implies that cultural differences matter for the history and
development of countries (Weber 1972; Rose 2019; Basáñez 2016).
Long before Huntington’s work, cultural typologies were common in
the field of Business Administration, particularly in the wake of Hofstede’s
groundbreaking study (Hofstede 1984; Lewis 2018, 121). Recent
research based on the World Values Survey reveals cultural differences
between countries with respect to values and personality traits (Alexander
and Welzel 2011; Norris and Inglehart 2011; Schulz et al. 2019). Western
people tend more toward individualism and independence, to imper-
sonal pro-sociality (e.g. trust to strangers), and less toward obedience and
conformity (Hofstede 1984; Henrich et al. 2010). In experimental stud-
ies on cooperation, Westerners respond more sensitively to sanctions
against noncooperation than subjects from Athens, Oman, Russia, or
Turkey, for example. The latter tend to regard sanctions as an insult and
respond more often with repeated noncooperation (Bowles 2017, 138).
From a global comparative perspective, Westerners are Western, edu-
cated, industrialized, resourceful, democratic (WEIRD) people and seem
to be the exception rather than the rule (Henrich et al. 2010). Research
on the WEIRD people supports Weber’s notion of the Occident’s
peculiar path. In line with Weber, anthropologists point to the impor-

tance of religious institutions and belief systems, but they suggest a dif-
ferent explanation: Westerners became WEIRD in the long run also
because the Western Church imposed restrictive marriage policies. The
Church “had become obsessed with incest and began to expand the circle
of forbidden relatives, eventually including not only distant cousins but
also step-relatives, in-laws, and spiritual kin” (Schulz et al. 2019, 2).
Cousin marriages were common in prehistoric societies around the
world and resulted in large clans, which provided security for the indi-
vidual in stateless societies. Communities were characterized by high kin-
ship intensity and clan-like social organization. A clan’s reputation
determined its power and vulnerability as well as the fate of the individ-
ual. In turn, individual behavior represented the reputation of the clan,
which is why social control of clan members and women, in particular,
became a crucial aspect of clan politics (Weiner 2013, 35). Gellner (1994,
7) described this kind of social order as the “tyranny of cousins”. In
human history, collectivistic orientations and parochial altruism
(Bernhard et al. 2006; Boehm 2011; Bowles 2017) were rather the norm,
whereas relevant individualistic WEIRD cultures did not exist. Dissolving
clan structures by marriage and family policies of the Western Church
(not the Eastern Orthodox Church) cleared the way for the evolution of
an individualistic and less conformist culture, where individuals were at
the same time more fair and trusting toward strangers. Indeed, the length
of exposure to the Western Church correlates positively with indicators of
the WEIRD culture, but this exposure obviously differed historically
around the world. According to these empirically justified arguments, it
can be ascertained that cultural differences still matter today (Schulz et al.
2019; Basáñez 2016).
Cultural Spheres as a Limitation of Isomorphism?
Sociological neo-institutionalism is in line with the idea that humans live

in and strongly depend on self-created social environments (Meyer et al.
1997). Personal identities, goals, and ‘individual’ decisions are based on
narratives needed to develop the self-concept of a person who pursues the
narrative in a meaningful way. Many of us regard the personal narrative

as unique, but such narratives and identities are institutionalized as taken-
for-granted options in our social environments (Meyer 2010, 5). In the
globalized world society, individuals and organizations are interested in
common institutionalized standards when they interact across different
national institutions. Due to the activities of international organizations,
but also because of its organizational efficiency (Weber 1972), the mod-
ern Western-style bureaucracy tends to spread around the world (Meyer
et al. 1997). By converging to the Western standard, organizational forms
become more and more similar. Meyer’s view is therefore in contrast to
Huntington’s idea of ‘fault lines’, which are assumed to clearly separate
civilizations.
Given the remarkable cultural differences between societies concern-
ing aspects such as gender roles, religious identities, individualism, narra-
tives of ethnic origin, autonomy, or collectivism, the assumed global
trend toward transnational isomorphism, in the form and content of
education systems, would challenge the maintenance of global cultural
diversity. Recently, however, policymakers have become more inclined to
draw distinctions related to identity and culture (Fukuyama 2018). One
indicator is the rise of right-wing populism in Western democracies;
another is the increasing importance of identity politics from a global
perspective. If the preservation of culture and identity became more
important over the recent decades, we would expect differing cultures in
the world to structure the diffusion of education systems, and thereby
moderate—accelerate or delay—the isomorphic diffusion of modern
education forms and content. If cultural spheres were still relevant today,
our empirical study would find at least a moderate effect of cultural clus-
ters on the diffusion of education policy. There might be different path-
ways to education, even though we expect global diffusion according to
the theory of neo-institutionalism.
A crucial question is how to define and measure different global cul-
tures? Inspired by existing cultural typologies, we rely on a set of coun-
tries’ cultural characteristics, namely, indicators of political liberties, rule
of law, gender roles, dominant religion, language group, government ide-
ology, classification of civilization, and colonial past and apply methods
of two-mode network analysis to generate a fuzzy set typology of what we

call ‘cultural spheres’.
Figure 1.1 shows a two-mode network approach we use to measure
‘cultural spheres’. A two-mode network consists of two different sets of
nodes, in our case countries and their cultural characteristics. Countries
1, 8, and 9 share the binary characteristic A, which could be a language
group, but 8 and 9 also share B, for example, the same dominant religion,
which is why the similarity of 8 and 9 in the country-level projection is
higher than, for example, between 1 and 8 (red edge in the right graph).
Here, ‘projection’ means that the two-mode network is transferred into a
network of countries, regarding shared characteristics as ties between
countries. Since two countries are more similar to each other, the higher
is the number of shared ties. The network is thus valued or, synony-
mously, weighted.
We hypothesize that the focus on the autonomous individual, liberty,
fairness, and equity ingrained in the WEIRD culture is not always recog-
nized and accepted as a role model for other cultures in the world (Haidt
2012). Instead of ‘assimilating’ toward the WEIRD, the issue of identity
and identity politics has become increasingly important over the last sev-
eral decades. In continuation, there might also be explicit defensive
actions against isomorphism, particularly in the field of education.
Fig. 1.1 Projection of the two-mode network on the country level

Education relates closely to a country’s cultural heritage as well as its nar-

rative about its history and identity. Therefore, cultural spheres may
moderate the diffusion of educations policies in the shape of fuzzy bound-
aries between different cultural spheres, whereas policies might easily dif-
fuse within a respective sphere.
orizontal and Vertical Interdependencies Interlinked

H
with National Factors
In our theoretical framework, culture and cultural spheres are crucial for
the diffusion of education policy. Proceeding from the neo-institutionalist
hypothesis, the postulated consequence of horizontal and vertical inter-
dependencies would be a global spread of diffusion accompanied by iso-
morphism. Potential barriers to this diffusion, or decelerators, especially
in the field of education, are constituted by national, regional, and cul-
turally specific factors. Resistance, creative enrichment, and new creations
can modify the diffusion process or even block it over the course of
identity-political defensive reactions. Consequently, educational state-
hood can follow fully self-contained cultural and regional pathways into
modernity. Viewed from a global perspective, the emergence and trans-
formation of education systems depend on horizontal and vertical inter-
dependencies as well as on factors within a given nation-state. Our
concept of ‘cultural spheres’ implies that culture and cultural differences
have an impact on the diffusion of education policy. We postulate that
cultural-spatial consolidation in networks forms topologies that may
counter trends toward global isomorphism in the field of education via
horizontal interdependencies.
Some older IOs such as the International Labour Organization (ILO)
emphasized the importance of education for social policy to improve qual-
ity of life early on and thereby trying to impact upon education policy via
vertical interdependencies. The propagated role of education can be inves-
tigated in greater detail at the level of the IOs by determining which IOs
consider education to be either an important social policy or an important
developmental policy in a given country. IOs can universally propagate
guiding principles if they can claim global validity. IOs can also pursue
culturally or regionally specific goals, which means that they concentrate

their education policy activities either on a particular region or on a spe-
cific cultural group so that they are not transferable to the international
community. For instance, the OECD with its Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) study claims worldwide validity for the ‘what
works’ examples, and in doing so, influences small countries in terms of
education policy reform as well as nations that did not take part in the
PISA study (Niemann and Martens 2018; Bieber et al. 2014).
However, national factors can mediate horizontal and vertical interde-
pendencies. Economic specialization in the international division of
labor and production can also correspond to path-dependent special
developments in national education systems, namely, when the economic
specialization of a country requires a particular set of competencies in the
population (Hidalgo 2015). The same is valid for factors such as the
extent of ethnic-cultural diversity or the degree of democratization or
autocratization in a country. In contrast to ‘classical’ social policy, often
introduced by some autocratic regimes to close a structural legitimation
gap, other autocracies often restrict the expansion of education to main-
tain the elite’s position of power. In both cases, authoritarian regimes use
education to reproduce legitimacy (Ansell 2010), which is why the con-
tent of state-organized education is also relevant, such as teaching univer-
sal ethics, religious instruction, or Marxist-Leninist philosophy in the
formerly socialist countries.
One distinctive feature of education as a policy field is that education
is intimately entwined with the reproduction of culture and collective
identity and as such can function as a set of ‘switches’, in Max Weber’s
sense, that determine the course of developmental paths (Knöbl 2007)
specific to ‘cultural spheres’. In addition to spatial proximity, belonging
to world religions, cultural spheres, or particular IOs produces relevant
linkages between states that can facilitate a diffusion of education policy.
Thus, in many African countries, the influence of Islam on the national
education system is evident, similar to the role of zakat in social policy
(Richardson 2004). Especially in remote rural regions, the Koran schools
(‘maktabs’) provide the only accessible primary education, while in other
regions they compete with the official state primary schools (Brock and
Alexiadou 2013, 137). While the ‘maktabs’ are religious educational
establishments rather than state schools, the substitutive role they play in
certain contexts could counter the adoption and spread of modern
Western primary education. Furthermore, the importance of religious
education in Central Asia has increased during the post-Soviet period, for
instance, in Uzbekistan (Yakhyaeva 2013). Nevertheless, even during the
Christian and Islamic colonialization of African countries, the education
systems imposed by the colonial powers were being challenged at the
level of local communities, mainly by preexisting local cultures, lan-
guages, and social structures. However, the diffusion of education poli-
cies and innovation may be stronger in other cultural spheres such as
Latin America and East Asia.
In sum, our research interests lie in the complex tension between global
diffusion (i.e. isomorphism), on the one hand, and subclusters that form
in certain regions or ‘cultural spheres’ and determine particular pathways,
mediated by national factors, on the other hand. We investigate the
extent to which globally active IOs spread universal ideas about educa-
tion; how the culturally or regionally specific orientation of IOs limits the
global diffusion of education policy; and how it may restrict it to cultur-
ally or regionally specific network clusters. Furthermore, we expect cul-
turally specific or regional IOs consolidate the diffusion network within
a ‘cultural sphere’ and thus influence the opportunities for and speed of
diffusion. Our hypothesis is that the introduction and configuration of
state education correspond to world regions and cultural clusters charac-
terized empirically by consolidated relations and dynamic subnetworks.
The focus of our explanation of these patterns lies on territorial and
national factors, including culturally shaped objectives and the impera-
tive of maintaining power, urbanization, the growing demand for compe-
tencies enabling global economic and technological competition. These
factors are mediated by vertical interdependencies, primarily through the
programs propagated by IOs for generating human capital. We argue, in
addition to the horizontal diffusion processes, IOs—some of which are
culture-specific—also affect national policy fields in a top-down fashion.
Thus, the emergence, transformation, and development of education sys-
tems can be linked to national factors and the international diffusion of
ideas. This diffusion of ideas occurs within a network of relationships that
countries participate in and which spreads ideas arising from impulses
given by IOs. The following questions are considered relevant: Do educa-

tion systems spread via the cultural spheres network? Which predisposi-
tions within countries and which spatial-structural factors affect the
likelihood of adopting a characteristic? Consequently, can patterns be
found in the diffusion paths of education systems and in the impacts of
cultural-specific IOs?
Research Design and Empirical Approach

For the purposes of this book, we apply a mixed-method approach. We
draw on a relational approach to describe cross-national horizontal inter-
dependencies by means of combined network and diffusion analysis and
to analyze their policy effects. Although this approach is gaining in popu-
larity (on healthcare policy see Valente 2015), it has rarely been applied
to the field of education. In the formation of national education systems
and their reform dynamics, including possible turning points, abstract
characteristics can diffuse through networks. Examples include high stan-
dardization, low stratification, and sufficient resources (Teltemann 2015,
131). Nevertheless, more tangible characteristics of education systems
also spread through networks between nation-states, such as compulsory
schooling, mass education, and changes in the minimum duration of
schooling.
We investigate vertical interdependencies by analyzing the influence of
IOs as providers of ideas and impulses for the developmental dynamics of
education policy. Previous research on vertical interdependencies showed
that the transnational effects generated by internationally operating
actors can exert a considerable influence on the transformation of national
education policy—at least for the PISA study and the Bologna Process
(Martens et al. 2010, 2014). In the PISA study, the OECD highlighted
various deficits in national education systems and propagated guiding
principles for educational reforms (Bieber et al. 2014). Many of the 80
countries that participated in PISA have initiated reforms of their national
education systems based on recommendations of this international com-
parative study. By means of a systematic qualitative comparison of the
programs pursued by IOs that are active in the field of education, we are
able to more precisely discern the degree of vertical interdependence

between education policies.
The research is implemented in three areas of work to explore the
transformation of education systems, namely, the compilation of a global
data set and the analysis of diffusion processes, networks, and types of
education IOs.
ompilation of a Global Data Set

C
on Education Systems
For the purposes of this work, we compile a global data set incorporating
the systems of school education in potentially all countries. The informa-
tion from these data sets is augmented by the series Education Around the
World (Brock and Alexiadou 2013), which describes the education sys-
tems of individual countries up until 2013, including their historical
dynamics. Historical developmental processes are also described in the
International Encyclopedia of National Systems of Education (Postlethwaite
1995) and in greater detail within the volumes of the International
Handbook of Education Systems (Cameron 1983). Thus, it is possible to
assess the reliability of the data (e.g. on the date when compulsory school-
ing was introduced) by comparing several sources. Our aim is to system-
atically classify education reforms and to further develop existing
theoretical models of the diffusion, development, and transformation of
education systems. The diffusion of information through networks is
analyzed using a logistic growth function that portrays the cumulative
proportion of “adopters” who have accepted the information (Valente
1995; Rogers 2003). The estimation of the diffusion rate follows a proce-
dure used in event history analysis (Windzio 2013).
he Analysis of Diffusion Processes

T
and International Networks
In addition to the modifying effect of cultural spheres and world regions,

we also consider factors at the level of the nation-state in the analyses of
diffusion, such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or levels of
democratization. A concentration of network contacts in a given cultural

sphere does not necessarily imply a simultaneous disintegration of the
global network into components between which the individual nodes
cannot reach each other. Rather, bridges would arise in the networks
(Burt 1992), in this case between cultural spheres. Theoretically, topo-
logical structures in the form of “small worlds” (Watts 2004) would be
conceivable, with maximal spatial reach of the diffusion being established
based on short path distances. These structures arise from a high level of
clustering and a low level of random linkages, which means that cliques
or highly interconnected “k-plexes” (Newman 2010, 194) can be delin-
eated, which in turn are connected by individual bridges. Spatially or
culturally consolidated clusters can therefore produce “small world” net-
works at the global level.
Recent research on diffusion through networks shows that specific net-
work topologies (such as a random network with overall short path dis-
tances or highly consolidated subclusters) considerably influence the
likelihood that information is diffused. If, on the one hand, we take the
case of innovations that are only adopted after sustained confirmation
through repeated contacts, short average path distances promote diffu-
sion. On the other hand, the number of overlapping group memberships
is also relevant (Centola 2015); if, for example, countries are part of a
specific cultural sphere and members of certain IOs where the IO mem-
berships open redundant bridges to other cultural spheres. We expect that
the strength of a given cultural sphere’s influence is relative to the influ-
ence of universalistic intercontinental IOs (e.g. United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)). These
IOs can determine whether there is either a trend toward the global spread
of Western-style education systems, as expected by neo-institutionalism,
or whether systematic regional and cultural differences between education
systems continue to exist, due to autonomous paths and other factors.
We expect that the introduction and spread of new organizational
forms in the education sector at the global level proceed according to a
diffusion model. For example, Wollons (2000) proves this idea with the
example of the kindergarten, developed around 1850 by the German
pedagogue Friedrich Froebel. Froebel trained teachers in Berlin, who
then spread the idea to other countries, including the United States.
Japanese teachers imported it to Japan and from there it spread to China

so that only 60 years later, “kindergartens were everywhere, including
Africa and Asia, where colonial powers and missionaries introduced kin-
dergartens to modernize local people” (Rogers 2003, 63). Since the edu-
cation sector is closely interwoven with the cultural uniqueness of a given
nation-state, creative new ideas and practices emerged during diffusion.
Thus, Froebel’s original socialist idea was modified and ‘recontextualized’
(Wollons 2000).
This example demonstrates the linkages between nation-states that
facilitate diffusion can be present at several levels. Specialized actors enter
into transnational contact, especially in cases where nation-states are
actively searching for role models for their facilities or the transformation
of their education systems. Even countries that were not involved in
long-term colonial dependencies, such as China or Japan, actively sought
exchange with European or North American education experts (Brock
and Alexiadou 2013, 8). In addition to intentional contact between
experts, nation-states are interconnected through close economic rela-
tions and membership in IOs, including in the fields of education and
culture. As recent studies on diffusion and the transfer of policies have
shown, the geographical proximity between nation-states can lead to
mutual influence via various mechanisms (Obinger et al. 2013).
Furthermore, networks of converging interests between countries may be
formed based on their tendencies toward similar voting behavior in the
United Nations (UN) (e.g. Voeten 2000). The analytical representation
of the networks between countries can also be based on a combination of
these characteristics. Thus, countries can be connected by their shared
history under the same colonial power, even though they would other-
wise not be connected because they are located in different cultural
spheres or world regions.
L eitmotifs and Typology of International

Education Organizations
In our work, we also analyze the guiding principles for education propa-
gated by IOs and how linkages between education-focused IOs are con-
stituted. Building upon earlier works of Bremen education policy
researchers (Nagel et al. 2010) we distinguish between two ideal types of

education policy leitmotifs. Leitmotifs are understood here as a recurring
conceptualized theme of the purpose of education. They are composed of
ideas that establish (ontological) links between causes and effects
(Goldstein and Keohane 1993). On the one hand, education’s economic
utility can be emphasized through a leitmotif. In this view, the formation
of human capital and economic productivity is prevalent. On the other
hand, education policy is a means to raise humanistic liberal citizens. In
this view, the generation of responsible citizens and their ability for polit-
ical and social participation is the focus. These types are not mutually
exclusive; rather, they reflect the broad values education can have.
Moreover, both perspectives on education can be applied to the individ-
ual level as well as to the collective or national level (Table 1.1).
Overall, 30 IOs have been revealed as being active in education policy
(Niemann and Martens 2021). Of these, we select six organizations for
detailed analysis. On the one hand, we look at three education IOs with
the word ‘education’ in their names: UNESCO, Islamic World Education,
Science and Culture Organization (ICESCO), and the Southeast Asian
Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). We refer to these as
the dedicated education organizations. We expect these IOs to represent
interests specific to education and orient their guiding principles less
toward producing human capital. For UNESCO, the universalist prin-
ciple of ‘education as a human right’ is in the foreground, whereas
ICESCO and SEAMEO appear to propagate more culturally particular-
istic values. Second, the three leading IOs active in the fields of econom-
ics and labor, which also concern themselves with the education sector
among their other range of tasks, are selected. We refer to these as
Table 1.1 Spectrum of education leitmotifs

Economic utilitarianism Humanistic liberal citizenship
Individual Skill formation: Focus on Self-fulfillment: Focus on
level education as improving education as a means for
individual productivity personal self-development
Collective Wealth of nations: Focus on Social right and duty: Focus on
level education as boosting education to ensure political
national economic growth and social participation
Source: Adapted from Nagel et al. (2010: 16), own account
derivative education organizations as they incorporated education into

their activities under an economistic perception: the OECD, the WB,
and the ILO. While the OECD represents the ‘advanced economies’, the
WB provides loans to the Global South. The ILO is the worldwide oper-
ating special agency of the UN concerned with labor and tasked with
promoting social justice as well as human and workers’ rights. We assume
these economically oriented organizations primarily take a human capital
approach in their guiding principles for education. This selection also
means that, on the one hand, three UN special agencies (WB, ILO, and
UNESCO) form part of our sample. In these organizations all recognized
states can become members. On the other hand, three IOs in our sample
impose specific membership criteria, namely, a high level of economic
development (OECD), religious affiliation (ICESCO), and geographical
position (SEAMEO). Based on documents and expert interviews, the
IOs’ guiding principles and the modes of their diffusion over time are
described, as well as the influence of other IOs (Table 1.2).
Our investigation also focuses on analyzing the centrality of the IOs as
well as contextualizing them within the broader network of IOs. Research
questions include: Which other IOs does the IO in question have close
relationships to? If close relationships are present, are the guiding prin-
ciples for education similar across the IOs involved? Biermann (2008)
thus proposes three cooperative mechanisms for forming network rela-
tionships, namely, exchange of information, coordination of activities,
and shared decision-making. Meanwhile, in the Yearbook of International
Organizations (https://uia.org/yearbook), membership of an IO in the
Table 1.2 Typology of the education IOs
Responsibility Derivative education Dedicated education

Membership organizations organizations
Open to any state
Focus: Labor ILO
Focus: Education/culture UNESCO
Focus: Development World Bank
Restricted by specific criteria
Focus: Economic development OECD
Focus: Religion ICESCO
Focus: Geographical position SEAMEO
boards of other IOs, consultations between IOs, or even just mutual cita-
tions are recorded. With this data, network analyses can be conducted to
calculate the local extent of centrality (i.e. as characteristics of the nodes
in the network, e.g. “closeness centrality” or “betweenness centrality”;
Wasserman and Faust 1994), and these results can be used to measure the
structural prerequisites for the influence of one IO on other IOs.
Nonetheless, such a network analysis is predominantly heuristic; we can
investigate the question of what IOs in central network positions actually
do, and if they exert a hegemonic influence, only by employing qualita-
tive analysis in a second step.
Therefore, this work aims to analyze the diffusion processes and to
investigate the linkages between IOs and the guiding principles they
propagate, which yield an overview of global activities; in addition, the
intensity and degree of vertical interdependencies in the field of educa-
tion are explored. Furthermore, the adherence of national education sys-
tems to the propagated guiding principles are investigated for either the
respective cultural sphere or for possible network subclusters.
Structure of the Book

While this introduction provides the theoretical and analytical frame-
work for the volume, eight substantial chapters examine the global devel-
opment, diffusion, and transformation of education policies empirically.
The volume ends with a commentary and a conclusion.
In Chap. 2, Helen Seitzer, Fabian Besche-Truthe, and Michael Windzio
investigate the diffusion of compulsory education from a global perspec-
tive. Compulsory education closely relates to the reproduction and
change of a country’s culture, while possibly facilitating the process of
modernization. In this chapter, the authors analyze the diffusion of com-
pulsory education by focusing on the effect of a country’s membership in
different clusters defined by cultural characteristics. Global cultural clus-
ters of countries do not necessarily have rigid, clear-cut boundaries or
‘fault lines’ but are fuzzy sets. Thus, the authors apply valued two-mode
social network analysis to define global ‘cultural spheres’. Following this
approach, countries are tied to each other by sharing cultural
characteristics, but the resulting ‘cultural spheres’ have fuzzy boundaries:

Countries become more connected to each other the more cultural char-
acteristics they share. The resulting network is the structural framework
behind the social network diffusion process of compulsory education.
The impact of cultural spheres on the diffusion process, controlling for
indicators of economic development, is tested by exposure in terms of
close cultural ties to other countries with compulsory education, where
they are found to significantly increase the rate of adoption.
In Chap. 3, Fabian Besche-Truthe looks at the global trajectories of
compulsory education. There exists a plethora of studies that examine
fundamental policy changes at the national level from a transnational or
global perspective. Such studies have highlighted, for example, the world-
wide introduction of mass schooling in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries (Meyer et al. 1997), and the universal spread of compulsory
education, which started with 12 early adopters in 1850 and has now
been introduced by 162 countries in 2018 (Besche-Truthe et al. 2020,
2021). In comparison, the global policy trend of expanding the duration
of compulsory education has been less explored. Besche-Truthe draws on
the concepts of trajectories and “pathways” (Verger et al. 2016) to surface
the various development paths that account for the adoption of this par-
ticular global education policy, resulting in the worldwide extension of
compulsory education. A sequence analysis (SQA) lends itself as a method
of inquiry because it enables the researcher to regard the whole trajectory
of policy development as a single unit of analysis. Recent developments
in methodology have opened new gateways in using SQA within the
social sciences. The chapter yields an exploration into different trajecto-
ries as well as into which national socioeconomic and cultural constella-
tions best explain these specific development paths.
In Chap. 4, Helen Seitzer and Michael Windzio address PISA scores,
student exchange, and (family) migration. PISA, a triennial study on
education system effectiveness starting in 2000, has led to the very public
discussion and comparison of countries’ education systems. The study’s
results are used to name and shame the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ of state educa-
tion. This led to a surge of education policy reforms and directed the
general public’s attention to education. Better education and job pros-
pects are some of the reasons for migration patterns. They might also
influence students’ choice of the destination country for exchange pro-

grams. However, there are no studies combining a network approach to
migration, student exchange, and the coevolution of PISA scores. Seitzer
and Windzio, therefore, ask if a country’s education system reputation
coincides with student exchange flows and family migration patterns, or
if other factors such as cultural similarity are the reason for choosing a
destination?
In Chap. 5, Dennis Niemann reviews IOs and their new interpreta-
tions on old education paradigms. Different ideological paradigms have
dominated the global education discourse at different periods.
Fundamentally, they revolve around the two poles of an economic utili-
tarian view on education and on an interpretation that emphasizes the
cultural value of education in enabling refined citizens. Both paradig-
matic leitmotifs were influenced by general developments in world poli-
tics, and they were also reflected in international organizations. In this
chapter, Niemann analyzes how major education IOs, namely, the WB,
UNESCO, the ILO, and the OECD, influenced the global discourse on
education and how they interacted with each other. First, he argues that
within the IOs, the two antipodal views on education (neoliberalism vs.
citizenship) became more complementary over time. Second, he shows
that the pattern of interaction between the four IOs has also changed
from competition to cooperation.
In Chap. 6, Helen Seitzer analyzes OECD reports regarding the edu-
cation topics they address. Through its country reports, extensive data
collection on the effectiveness of education systems, and policy advice,
the OECD is contributing considerably to the diffusion of a transna-
tional model of education. However, critics argue, one size does not fit
all, and policy advice distributed in a watering can system is not helping
countries to advance their education systems due to their specific local
conditions. In this chapter, Seitzer uses a topic model to determine
whether the OECD does in fact discuss the same issues in its country
reports on education with all countries, or if there are local clusters to be
found and thus reports are tailored to the local condition. Seitzer finds
regional clusters due to similarity in economic and cultural conditions.
In Chap. 7, David Krogmann looks at IOs and education in the Islamic
World. There are a number of education IOs of predominantly Muslim
member states that have not yet been reviewed systematically in the
almost 40 years of their existence. This chapter maps the existing educa-
tion IOs in the Muslim world. The analysis presented here revolves
around two main questions: First, which organizations with predomi-
nantly Muslim member states are active in the field of international edu-
cation policy, and how, if at all, do they cooperate with each other?
Second, which education leitmotifs do these organizations promote, and
what kind of discourse do they construct around education policy? The
analysis finds Muslim education IOs, namely, the ICESCO, Arab Bureau
of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), and Arab League Cultural,
Educational and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), participate in a dis-
tinct discourse that revolves around the synthesis of traditional values
drawn from Islamic philosophy and the demands of a modern global
labor market.
In Chap. 8, regional identities in international education organizations
are the focus of attention in David Krogmann’s chapter on
SEAMEO. SEAMEO has been a major player in education policy in
Southeast Asia for decades. Despite its history, it has not garnered atten-
tion by scholars of international education. This chapter represents a first
step toward filling the gap by exploring the underlying themes and ideas
that inform discursive patterns produced and reproduced by
SEAMEO. How does SEAMEO conceive of education? Did SEAMEO’s
image of education evolve over time? The analysis by Krogmann finds
SEAMEO mostly follows the UN’s global sustainable development
agenda in education policy, stressing both the social as well as the eco-
nomic purposes of education. Nevertheless, it does so with a distinct
emphasis on the educational purpose of reinforcing the collectively shared
values and traditions of its member states, which it deems unique to
Southeast Asia.
In Chap. 9, Michael Windzio and Raphael Heiberger examine which
topics are important for major education IOs. IOs in the field of educa-
tion follow different ideological paradigms in the global education dis-
course. According to our theoretical concept, we distinguish between
dedicated and derivative IOs. Derivative IOs in the field of education
mainly focus on other important issues, such as economic prosperity or
economic development in the Global South. In contrast, dedicated IOs
focus on education policy as their major issue. Yet, it is an open question

as to whether these different types of IOs also focus on different topics
and thereby support different paradigms of education. Based on more
than 1000 documents published by the WB, UNESCO, the ILO, the
OECD, ICESCO, and SEAMEO, they explore education issues as dealt
with in this sample. Using standardized methods of qualitative text analy-
sis, in particular topic modeling, Heiberger, Seitzer, and Windzio explore
whether the major topics found in these documents do indeed differ
between the different types of organizations or not.
In Chap. 10, John W. Meyer contributes a commentary to the book in
light of his long-standing work within the sociology of education from a
neo-institutionalist perspective. The concluding Chap. 11 by Michael
Windzio and Kerstin Martens, evaluates the theoretical framework pre-
sented in this Introduction in light of the empirical findings of the indi-
vidual chapters. The chapter also points out avenues for further research
resulting from this volume.
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2
The Introduction of Compulsory
Schooling Around the World: Global
Diffusion Between Isomorphism
and ‘Cultural Spheres’
Helen Seitzer, Fabian Besche-Truthe,
and Michael Windzio
Introduction1
State-regulated education has a long history, with its earliest mentions
appearing in the Talmud, in Ancient Greece and later during the
Enlightenment (Weymann 2014). Virtually every society has established
some form of education over time (Craig 1981, 191f ). Most early forms
of education, however, were limited to particular groups, for example,
1
This chapter is a product of the research conducted in the Collaborative Research Center “Global
SFB 1342.
H. Seitzer (*) • F. Besche-Truthe

Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”,
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

38 H. Seitzer et al.
boys from the ruling class, military commanders, or people of the clergy.
Most of the beneficiaries were traditionally chosen to maintain the social
and political equilibrium and keep certain people in power (Boli et al.
1985)—education was a means to shape the future elite (Weymann
2014). Moreover, education was and still is strongly tied to local culture,
for example, the Protestant Reformation (Ramirez and Boli 1987).
Historically, religious traditions and class conflict have strongly shaped
the development of state-regulated education.
In this chapter, we apply a relational concept of ‘culture’, in which
shared cultural traits are assumed to shape the diffusion process of social
policies, as it allows for easier communication between these countries.
We elaborate how this concept of culture relates to education as a means
of socialization, but also how different ‘cultural spheres’ can influence—
accelerate or decelerate—the diffusion of global norms such as the intro-
duction of standardized schooling. To this extent, we explore empirically
how compulsory education developed around the globe, and we test the
influence of membership in certain ‘cultural spheres’ on the introduction
of compulsory education. Researching policy diffusion requires a combi-
nation of processes on the local as well as the global level, which we
account for by combining network analysis with event history analysis
for diffusion (Valente 1995).
The origin of state-regulated compulsory schooling for all children can
be traced back to Europe. We argue that culture cannot be ignored as a
driving force behind the diffusion of social policies and suggest a rela-
tional approach. Cultural similarity establishes a linkage between groups,
which increases communication and exchange. We measure culture in a
way that allows countries not only to share cultural characteristics in
varying strengths but also to change their culture over time. Cultures and
their differences result from shared histories, traditions, exchange, and
power relations, all of which develop over time and bind some countries
M. Windzio
SOCIUM and Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of
Social Policy”, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
2 The Introduction of Compulsory Schooling Around the World… 39
closer together, but also allow them to drift apart over time. Cultures are
not fixed or mutually exclusive entities. Nevertheless, compulsory educa-
tion corresponds with the reproduction and change of a country’s culture
and drives the process of modernization. As we know from international
comparative research, there are different pathways into modernity, so the
role of education in the reproduction and change of a nation state’s cul-
ture might differ as well (Weymann 2014).
Yet, global cultural differences are still a neglected issue in studies on
the development of education systems. If educational standards differ
from local cultures and traditions, powerful actors in some countries
could even oppose the introduction of (standardized) compulsory educa-
tion. Accordingly, we expect the diffusion of compulsory education
around the globe to depend on local cultural factors.
In this chapter, we identify a limited set of cultures in the world as
‘cultural spheres’ (see Chap. 1) and analyze their importance for the dif-
fusion of education policy. We analyze the diffusion of compulsory edu-
cation by focusing on countries’ membership in fuzzy clusters defined by
cultural characteristics. By deriving clusters from a valued two-mode
social network analysis, we explicitly consider the overlapping boundaries
and fuzzy set character of cultural spheres in contrast to rigid ‘fault lines’
(Huntington 1993). We measure cultural spheres by indicators such as
religion and language, and test their impact on the diffusion of compul-
sory education, controlling for indicators of economic development,
democratization, and colonial legacies.
In the following sections, we first discuss the role of culture in the dif-
fusion process of institutionalized education. Subsequently, we illustrate
the reproduction of culture and social order through standardized educa-
tion and the effects of its increasing isomorphism. Lastly, after introduc-
ing our estimation method, we extensively illustrate the cultural spheres
we have identified and their impact on the adoption of compulsory edu-
cation policy.
Culture and the Diffusion

of Education Systems
The definition of ‘culture’, its influence on individual behavior, and its
global differences have become a central controversy within the social sci-
ences (Anderson-Levitt 2012). Marxists regard culture as a superstructure
determined by productive forces and the organization of property rights.
As an outcome of a progressively simplified class structure in capitalist soci-
eties, class-consciousness is a condition of class conflict—an essential con-
cept in Marxist theory (Lockwood 1992). Although Max Weber considered
the importance of economic organization for the development of societies,
he focused on the impact of religious orientation and the evolution of
Occidental rationalism, economic motives, and specific forms of authority.
Long-term historical path dependencies led to remarkable differences
between global cultures (Weber 1972), and these differences are still impor-
tant today. Nevertheless, cultures are not stable entities but embedded in a
network of socially constructed elements. There is no objective point of
reference when we contrast different cultures. For example, when we evalu-
ate the degree of individualism in a society, we can just compare average
levels of individualism between societies. As we know from social network
analysis, elements of culture relate to each other like fuzzy set clusters and
mutually give each other meaning (Emirbayer and Goodwin 1994;
Emirbayer 1997, 299). In our view, a more relational approach to the con-
cept of culture allows for the analysis of culture as a determinant of policy
diffusion through networks without the identification of ‘fault lines’.
Culture and the Legitimacy of Order
Various academic perspectives define culture by using a set of common

principles: beliefs, norms, symbols, values, and meanings, which are part
of a shared stock of knowledge in a given community (Rose 2019; Basáñez
2016). Such a community can be local or global, the latter being espe-
cially prevalent in times where transnational online activities are highly
influential (Anderson-Levitt 2012). Elements of culture must be trans-
mitted from one person to another, for example, by communication, by
intergenerational transmission within families, and by educational insti-

tutions. The sustainability of cultural elements depends on their spatial
distribution and stability over time, so that transmission is possible. Yet
most ideas and practices created by individuals will never pass the trans-
mission threshold and will not enter stable diffusion chains; therefore,
they do not become part of a socially shared stock of knowledge. The
more attractive ideas and practices are, the higher their likelihood of
becoming part of a social tradition. Attractiveness and accessibility of
cultural elements fuel their diffusion by repetition, redundancy, and pro-
liferation (Morin 2016, 146). Furthermore, the attractiveness of a cul-
tural element is determined, among other things, by its adaptability and
benefit to the community (Meyer et al. 1997).
Culture exists not only as shared knowledge in the minds of individu-
als but also in an ‘objectified state’. An individual should not expect to
influence the objectified culture in a substantive way (Parsons and Shils
1951, 58–66). Nevertheless, in liberal-pluralistic and culturally diverse
societies, interpretations of norms and symbols are flexible, debatable,
and subject to negotiation. People can be part of multiple subcultures, or
they are accepted by only some members of a culture but not others
(Anderson-Levitt 2012). Ironically, although there is no ‘essence’ of a
culture, culture is nevertheless of crucial importance for a society’s social
and economic order (Emirbayer and Goodwin 1994; Rose 2019).
Societies need minimum consensus on values, normative expectations,
and the meaning of symbols (Parsons and Shils 1951; Rose 2019).
In their study on economic development and political stability,
Acemoglu and Robinson (2019) emphasize the role of institutions, but
we know from Weber (1972) that different forms of authority and insti-
tutionalized order show varying levels of stability. This variance in stabil-
ity strongly depends on the legitimacy of order, particularly from the
administration’s point of view but also from that of the general popula-
tion. The German constitutional lawyer Böckenförde (1976) emphasized
that the “liberal and secular state is based on conditions which this state
itself is unable to guarantee … and this is the risk the liberal state has
taken for the sake of freedom” (Böckenförde 1976, 60).2 It is another way
2
Own translation.
of expressing the importance of Weber’s concept of legitimized order.

Legitimacy of institutions and social order results from shared taken-for-
granted knowledge, which is a crucial aspect of a country’s culture. The
liberal state needs a cultural foundation. Being liberal, it cannot enforce
this culture by law but depends on the appropriate socialization of its citi-
zens. Moreover, it gains legitimacy by actions regarded as efficient and
beneficial. The liberal nation-state, which was formed in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, operates in a (world) society of ‘sovereign’
nation-states in which legitimacy of state action is mutually dependent
on and influenced by the actions of other members of that society (Meyer
et al. 1997).
Culturally defined goals of statehood became universal, crossing bor-
ders around the globe. For legitimization, states need to fulfill specific
functions, for example, ensuring national, individual, economic, and
social progress (Ramirez and Boli 1987), or the inclusion of societal
groups in the state’s social and political framework (Wallerstein 2007).
This framework of nation-state formation (Green 2013) crucially relies
on the individual as the focus of attention and the cornerstone of eco-
nomic and societal action. This individualistic shift away from commu-
nal units like family, clan, or small religious and ethnic groups is inherently
European and was largely brought forward by the prohibition of intra-
family marriage (Henrich 2020). These norms became even more com-
mon as a result of the Reformation, which devalued the church collective
and emphasized individual action as the appropriate pathway to salvation
(Ramirez and Boli 1987, 12). Modern norms and values are in line with
the state’s effort to control progress through individual education. In
other regions of the world, this cultural turn came after the nineteenth
century, if at all. Nevertheless, we can deduce that (state) legitimacy as an
element of culture conceptually links social and political order, on the
one hand, and education systems, on the other hand. Education systems
are systematic means to transfer the standards of state legitimacy to future
generations. Institutionally similar configurations, especially the concept
of ‘sovereign nation-states’, with their similar purposes of economic
growth, human rights, and social equality, have proven to be accelerators
for the diffusion of abstract norms and values (Strang and Meyer 1993).
Institutionalized Education and the Transmission

of Culture
Only through the acceptance of concepts such as ‘nation’, ‘citizenship’,

and ‘culture’ can the state legitimize the implementation of rules and
norms regulating the lives of its citizens through laws and education
(Schriewer 2012). Just as citizens regard themselves as part of a local and
national culture, nation-states are characterized by culture to some degree
(Basáñez 2016, 16). ‘Vertical’ transmission of knowledge by teaching a
predefined curriculum to children and adolescents in schools became a
functional requirement of modern societies, which are based upon highly
specialized knowledge in various fields. A major part of cultural transmis-
sion in modern societies falls on educational institutions. While anthro-
pologists focus on the ‘bottom-up’ evolution of culture, or more precisely
on gene-culture coevolution (Henrich 2016), sociological neo-
institutionalism (Meyer et al. 1997) advances Weber’s view on the con-
solidation of rational institutions during the transition into modernity.
Modern institutions are so efficient that Weber (1972) suspected the
emergence of ‘iron cages’, in which individuals are trapped and execute
instructions in dehumanized bureaucracies. Neo-institutionalists (Meyer
et al. 1997) argue that Western organizational forms transcend the
boundaries of Western culture due to their general efficiency in organiz-
ing state and society. The evolution of the Occidental culture took a
rather specific path in Weber’s view, whereby Western rationalization and
secularization resulted in remarkable differences to other cultures.
Western individualism is regarded as Western, educated, industrialized,
resourceful, and democratic (WEIRD) (Schulz et al. 2019; Henrich
2020). WEIRD cultures lean toward individualism and independence,
toward impersonal pro-sociality (e.g. trust to strangers), and less toward
obedience and conformity. Anthropologists agree with Weber on the
importance of religion, but according to Schulz et al. (2019) and Henrich
(2020), Westerners became WEIRD due to the marriage policies of the
Western Church. The Church prohibited marriage between cousins and
repressed the influence of extended families and clans, which resulted in
higher individualism and an increased reliance on state institutions for

competition and conflict resolution (Henrich 2020, 323–359).
As a result, modernity strongly depends on institutions; nowadays, it
also depends on international and supranational organizations such as
the European Union (EU), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the
International Labour Organization (ILO), and others. These organiza-
tions tend to be bureaucratic, so that they can survive and efficiently
attain their goals. Their organizational culture tends to be WEIRD as
well. Becoming an accepted part of these organizations serves as a legiti-
mization tool for some countries. The implementation of compulsory
education, for example, is a common tool of legitimization for states
(Meyer et al. 1997). How important these institutions are in guiding
peoples’ behavior, however, is a different question. The acceptance of a
global culture can be more of a performative act than an integration of
these norms into the local belief system (Steiner-Khamsi 2000); it can be
just “myth and ceremony” (Meyer and Rowan 1977). Nevertheless, IO
membership demonstrates a country’s affiliation with the group of coun-
tries already following these norms and increases a country’s ‘social stand-
ing’ within the group. In our globalized world, individuals and
organizations are interested in shared institutionalized standards when
they interact across different national institutions. Modern, Western
bureaucracies tend to spread around the world due to their efficiency
(Meyer et al. 1997) but also because international organizations require
predictable, reliable, and accountable organizational standards. The
impressive isomorphism portrayed by nation-states as well as IOs becomes
evident, for instance, when states establish a bureaucracy charged with
managing science policy even though the need for it is hardly justifiable
(Finnemore 1993). According to neo-institutionalists, actors, individu-
als, and organizations evolve in an environment with predefined expecta-
tions and aspirations along with standardized modes of reaching these
goals. Since World War II, this environment has gained strength in pen-
etrating nation-states’ development, rendering domestic structural, cul-
tural, and historical factors less impactful (Benavot and Riddle 1988,
204). Isomorphism proceeds covertly ‘behind our backs’. However, we
suspect that culture and identity, for example, in terms of Protestantism
and Catholicism, were fundamental influences on the formalization of
institutions, especially during the early time frame of our study (Boli
et al. 1985, 165).
Even today, culture and identity are still important issues in the domes-
tic politics of many Western countries, but they are also critical at the
global level (Fukuyama 2018), having become highly controversial since
the mid-1990s. For example, Huntington (1993) argued that religious-
cultural ‘fault lines’ now separate different civilizations from each other,
and it is at these fault lines that future global conflicts would occur
(Huntington 1996). Although many global conflicts result from diverg-
ing economic interests and many future conflicts might result from envi-
ronmental deterioration, Huntington made us aware of the role played
by ethnic, cultural, and religious movements. These facets were hidden
during the Cold War but became visible since the early 1990s. Huntington
pointed to culture as a crucial issue due to potential tensions between
different cultures and civilizations.
His typology of civilizations (Huntington 1996) is rather rough, and
stimulated severe criticism for good reason (Norris and Inglehart 2011,
134–137). As demonstrated above, culture exists at different levels
(Basáñez 2016, 16), for example, in romantic relationships, small groups,
but also in nation-states, or supra-national entities such as the EU. We
must either allow some abstraction when we analyze cultures at higher
levels (Anderson-Levitt 2012, 443), or we must give up the concept
entirely and thereby implicitly regard cultural diversity at the global level
as intractable to scientific inquiry. In accordance with Chap. 1, we expect
culture to be a shaping force, influencing the spread of state education
systems, because it is inherently interwoven with education, which is
affected by cultural configurations and charged with transmitting them.
We argue that culture, as a domestic factor, accelerated or delayed global
isomorphic tendencies.
Institutionalized Education and Society
The first observation of a spread of Western values impacting schooling

and, in turn, society is through the introduction of modern mathematics.
There have been various ways of calculating throughout human history,
but the system introduced by European merchants to other trading part-

ners has prevailed (Bishop 1990). Similarly, during the 1800s, the under-
standing and Romanticizing of childhood as a sacred period of exploration
and learning changed, and in combination with the attempt to regulate
child labor, education became an instrument to socialize citizens (Benavot
et al. 1991).
With the introduction of compulsory schooling and scientific advance-
ments, there was a ‘demystification of the world’, as Weber (1972) called
it; society developed toward rationalized explanations of reality and away
from religious ones. At the same time, academic achievement and gradu-
ate certificates became a mark of status in and of themselves. They not
only allow for occupational opportunities and social mobility but also
mark the transition from adolescence to adulthood (Baker 2014).
Graduating from school or dropping out have a significant influence on
a person’s self-perception as well as on the social evaluation by others.
Education is considered a necessary requirement for citizens, whereas
‘dropouts’ are often regarded as nonproductive members of society (Baker
2014). The common usage of the word ‘dropout’ merges the act of leav-
ing school early with personal failure; thus, it indicates a cultural trans-
formation in terms of how people think about themselves and others
(Papagiannis et al. 1983).
The standardization of education not only results in homogeneity of
student knowledge but also in homogeneity of self-perception, namely,
the experience of oneself as a citizen in a cultural (national) context.
Childhood becomes a distinct and important part of the human lifecycle.
Since every child has human rights by virtue of being a human individ-
ual, the experience of school education as a mythical yet rationalistic
inauguration into full citizenship is shared across the globe (Ramirez
2013, 147). In a nutshell, educational standardization, national identity,
culture, and globalization are inseparably interwoven.
The spread of state-led education all over the world has been obvious
since the early nineteenth century; but what has been the impact of cul-
tural similarities and differences in the facilitation of that expansion? Has
culture been shaping the diffusion process within rather than between
cultural spheres?
In line with arguments highlighting the importance of identity and

global identity politics (Fukuyama 2018), we expect cultural spheres to
be relevant in shaping the development of compulsory education. We
also expect them to have an effect on the diffusion of education policy.
We regard global cultural differences as important but at the same time
disagree with the assumption of there being rigid fault lines between cul-
tures. Global cultures are fuzzy sets, meaning that the boundaries between
cultural categories are merging, not clearly cut. We represent this fuzzi-
ness as a valued network, where countries are linked to each other by
cultural proximity. The strength of ties increases with the number of
shared cultural characteristics (Chap. 1), allowing for a gradual descrip-
tion of cultural similarity. Hence, we are ultimately interested in what
effects this new operationalization of cultural similarity has on the timing
of policies that mandate state-organized education.
Data and Methods

In this chapter, we analyze the worldwide diffusion of compulsory educa-
tion from 1789 to 2010. We collected data on cultural characteristics of
N = 164 countries, including indicators of political liberties, rule of law,
aspects of gender roles and relations, dominant religion, language group,
government ideology, classification of civilization, and colonial past
(Besche-Truthe et al. 2020). We generated quartiles of continuous mea-
surements, for example, for the index of gender relations, in order to get
discrete categories for the valued two-mode network. If two countries
share a characteristic, for example, the same dominant religion, they will
be connected in the network. Regarding the multitude of cultural char-
acteristics in our data set, most countries have several relations to each
other, for example, when they share the language group ‘Atlantic-Kongo’
and the same category of political liberties. The weighted nature of this
network derives from the number of shared characteristics; the higher the
number of ties in this network, the closer the cultural proximity between
two countries. Rather than homogenous clusters and clear-cut ‘fault
lines’, this method yields a network of cultural spheres with relations of
varying intensity between countries. We then applied the Louvain
algorithm for clustering in order to cluster the countries. The algorithm

finds communities by maximizing the density within communities rela-
tive to the links across communities. As shown in Figs. 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4,
the cultural spheres network is time-varying due to the time-varying
measurement of most cultural indicators. Elsewhere, we used the meta-
phor of a ‘pipe structure’ as the underlying structure of the diffusion
process (Besche-Truthe et al. 2021), where the ‘pipe diameter’ is the
number of ties in a dyad and thus, the degree of similarity between two
countries. Larger pipe diameters lead to a higher weight of a tie and indi-
cate higher ‘cultural exposure’ of Country A to Country B. This should
increase the likelihood of ‘contagion’, given that a specific policy has not
yet been adopted in one of the two countries. We use the R package net-
diffuseR (Vega Yon and Valente 2020), which defines exposure as the
share of j adopters in the ego-centered network of node i (i ≠ j) at time t
and is supposed to affect the adoption rate between t and t+1 (Valente
1995). If a country is only connected to other countries that have already
adopted compulsory schooling, exposure is 1, and if none of these coun-
tries have adopted it, exposure is 0. To be precise, we calculate the expo-
sure weighted by the tie strength, which is lagged by one year, that is, the
exposure one year before we observe a possible introduction.
The introduction of compulsory schooling (no compulsory schooling = 0
and introduction of compulsory schooling = 1) during the window of obser-
vation is the dependent variable in our discrete-time logistic hazard
model. Once a country has introduced compulsory schooling, it drops
out of the risk set. Introductions after 2010 are right-censored, adoptions
before the window of observation begins (before 1789) are not consid-
ered in the risk set but contribute to the network exposure of countries
that have not yet adopted.
To account for specific unequal power relations, we introduce a second
potentially influential network that is built through colonial ties of coun-
tries. In contrast to static colonial relations, we represent colonial ties in a
time-variant way. The data set “COLDAT” by Bastian Becker (2019) was
extended by including non-European colonizers like the Persian and the
Russian Empires. Countries send a link with a value of 1 to countries who
are their colonizers in the respective year. However, after colonization, the
relationship between the two countries does not end; interlinkages still
prevail, although through other channels like trade or development aid

(Shields and Menashy 2017). Institutions initially founded during coloni-
zation might pose path dependencies. Generally, we expect a higher pos-
sibility for contact and orientation on policies between the former
metropole and colonized state. We model these possibilities by a decreas-
ing value of a colonial tie after colonization formally ended by accounting
for ‘post-colonial’ ties using an exponential decay function.
Our ‘cultural spheres’ network and the network of (post-)colonial ties
are the underlying structures for calculating a country’s exposure to other
countries that have already implemented compulsory schooling. We
hypothesize exposure in the valued ‘cultural spheres’ network to be a rel-
evant driving force behind the introduction of compulsory schooling,
but we also account for relevant confounders. The introduction of com-
pulsory schooling might also depend on a country’s level of economic
development, which is certainly not exclusively determined by culture
but nevertheless correlates with countries’ cultures (Weber 1972; Rose
2019). We interpolated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for
the entire time frame by taking the minimum value in every income
group based on all observations before 1800, where we filled missing
values with this minimum value. To fill the historic time points, we took
the last observed group per country and extrapolated the value for all
previous years.
Although Paglayan (2020, 9) finds the event of democratization to
occur approximately 50 years later than the introduction of compulsory
primary schooling and generally argues that the expansion of primary
school enrolments is not significantly larger in democratic time periods
of nation-states, we still include an index representing the level of democ-
ratization ranging 0–9. We utilize data from the V-Dem Project
(Coppedge et al. 2019) and linearly interpolated missing time points. We
suspect that contrary to Paglayan’s operationalization, using an index
instead of a dummy variable captures country-level heterogeneity better.
It is possible that nominally weak or undemocratic systems could be
quicker in institutionalizing state-mandated education to ideologically
secure their regime or pacify conflicts arising from economic and social
inequalities. Finally, the process might be time-dependent, which is usu-
ally a result of unobserved heterogeneity. We control for five equally sized
time intervals, beginning in the historical year of 1789.
Results
Geographies of Compulsory Education Diffusion
Geographically, the global diffusion process started in a few countries in

Northern and Central Europe and then spread to the Americas and
Australia. Until 1900, Japan as well as the Philippines had also adopted
compulsory schooling. Until 1950, it is apparent that countries in sub-
Saharan Africa had not introduced compulsory schooling, while China
and Russia had adopted the policy by this point. By 2010, only 20 out of
the observed 164 states had not introduced compulsory schooling.
Figure 2.1 maps Rogers’ (2003, 281) classification of early adopters, the
early majority, the late majority, and laggards. These categories are derived
from the distribution of times-of-adoption: times within one standard
deviation around the mean time indicate the early and late majority;
times below and above one standard deviation are early adopters and lag-
gards. The initial hegemony of Western state formation (Green 2013) can
be visualized though the diffusion pattern of compulsory schooling,
where it originated in Europe and then spread across the globe. The hege-
mony of the Western education states has run its course since then
(Weymann 2014).
The diffusion pattern of compulsory schooling shown in Fig. 2.1 sup-
ports Meyer et al.’s (1997) argument regarding the spread of Western
institutions across the globe. Early adopters are mostly Western and some
Fig. 2.1 Diffusion of compulsory education around the world, 1789–2010.

(Source: Own computation WeSIS database)
South American countries, the early majority consists of most Asian and
some Middle Eastern countries, whereas the late majority shows a high
prevalence in Africa, South America, and South Asia. Alphabetization
through standardized education fosters a culturally homogenized civil
society and at the same time ensures the survival of state power by increas-
ing the identification with the state. This process is bolstered by empha-
sizing the importance of education for the individuals’ participation in
the labor market, as stated above. The geography of adoption in Fig. 2.1
gives a first impression of how adopter-types are distributed across the
globe. However, geographic location itself is not a meaningful explana-
tion for the process. According to our argument, ties in the network of
‘cultural spheres’ that are derived from a two-mode network of countries
and cultural characteristics are the backbone of the diffusion process.
Hence, we now turn to a more thorough inspection of our ‘cultural
spheres’.
Describing Cultural Spheres
Figures 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4 show the one-mode projection of the two-mode
network on the vertex set of countries after applying a Louvain clustering
method for group detection (Luke 2015, 115–119). The vertices (nodes)
are connected via shared cultural characteristics and labeled with the
ISO-3-character code of the respective country they represent. The tie
strength increases with more shared characteristics. Countries sharing
multiple characteristics are therefore considered more similar than coun-
tries sharing only few or no characteristics. For a better overview, only ties
with strength greater than 2 are depicted in these plots. A general rule for
where countries are placed in the graph is as follows: highly similar coun-
tries are located closely together, outliers with only few ties such as China
or Thailand (Fig. 2.2) are placed at the outer rim of the plot. The cluster
solution obtained with the Louvain clustering algorithm sorts the coun-
tries into an optimal number of clusters based on the weight of the ties in
any given year. For the year 1880, this results in a solution with five clus-
ters, as indicated by the colors (Fig. 2.2). The visualization makes the
fuzzy boundaries obvious, as these clusters partially overlap and show
Fig. 2.2 Network of cultural spheres in 1880
many linkages across clusters. In 2010 (Fig. 2.4), the cluster solution col-
lapses into only three categories, which underlines the time-varying
nature of our cultural indicators, and there is certainly no static ‘essence’
of a culture. For our analysis, we use the five-cluster solution from 1880,
which represents cultural spheres at the beginning of our window of
observation. Inspecting countries in the respective clusters gives a mean-
ingful result: cluster 1 consists of Catholic, Spanish-speaking countries;
cluster 2 of not predominantly Muslim African and East Asian countries;
cluster 3 of Eastern European and Asian countries; cluster 4 of mostly
WEIRD countries; and cluster 5 of predominantly Muslim countries. Also,

the fuzzy set nature of our clustering approach reveals that some coun-
tries do not seem to fit perfectly into a group. For instance, the cluster
Eastern European and Asian also includes Vietnam and Uganda as two
outliers who have a rather marginalized position within this cluster
(Fig. 2.2). In addition, Japan and Haiti belong to the WEIRD cluster,
but they take a marginal position because the number and intensity of
their ties to other members of this cluster are comparatively low.
Inspecting the cluster solution in 2010, we quickly notice several dis-

tinctions from the network in 1880. First, there are only three clusters
remaining, and still with considerable overlap. The aspects dividing coun-
tries in terms of cultural characteristics seem to move toward an equilib-
rium: While a constant stock of traits is shared, a constant stock of traits
also remains exclusive. Second, the graph seems to have merged into a
single hairball, causing a reduction in the number of outliers. While in
1880 countries such as Japan, Vietnam, Serbia, Bhutan, China, and
Thailand shared only few characteristics with other countries, by 2010
only Japan, South Korea, and Serbia remained in this position. The
orange cluster contains mostly WEIRD/Western countries, the green clus-

ter mostly not predominantly Muslim countries, and the purple cluster
mainly Muslim/African countries but also countries more difficult to
place such as China. Despite the change in cluster membership and num-
ber, the overlap between the clusters is still obvious. The number of
shared characteristics does not culminate in a separation of cultural clus-
ters, nor is it intended to do so. Overall, the cluster solution provides a
good classification and interesting insights.
We can deduce that our cluster solution is in line with other recent
attempts to create a classification of cultural groups. For example, recent
studies using the European and World Value Survey classified countries
according to religious cultures and highlighted the differences between
the Western and the Muslim world with respect to sexual liberalization
and gender equality (Norris and Inglehart 2011, 154). Moreover, a mul-
tilevel view on global culture assumes three overarching ‘hyper-cultures’
and eight ‘macro-cultures’ in the world. While the former depends on
legal systems (Islamic, Anglo-Saxon, Roman), macro-cultures result from
systems of belief in different religions (Basáñez 2016, 163). Cultural
spheres resulting from our clustering procedure are in line with previous
studies, as indicators of religion, language, gender roles, and political lib-
erties were also included as the basic characteristics for defining culture.
stimating the Influence of Culture

E
on the Diffusion Process
In the previous sections, we laid out in detail that ‘culture’—not as a spe-

cific domestic essence, but rather as a relation to other countries’ cultures—
is subject to change over time and interwoven with national policy-making
as well as education policy more specifically. How culture can be influential
is shown through the network diffusion models in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1 shows three discrete-time logistic hazard models of network
diffusion (Valente 1995). Due to the interval-specific baseline hazards, it
is a piecewise constant rate model. Countries that had adopted compul-
sory education before the process time began were included in the calcu-
lation of exposure but excluded from the logistic hazard model, as they
are no longer at risk of adopting the policy. Only N = 160 countries
Table 2.1 Diffusion of compulsory education in the cultural spheres network

Introduction of compulsory
schooling
(1) (2) (3)
Rate t(0–44) 0.0003*** 0.0002*** 0.0001***
Rate t(45–89) 0.002*** 0.002*** 0.002***
Rate t(90–129) 0.001*** 0.002*** 0.004***
Rate t(130–169) 0.001*** 0.002*** 0.008***
Rate t(170–221) 0.001*** 0.002*** 0.024***
GDP per capita/10,000 USD 1.042 1.023 1.037
Democratization 1.039 1.015 1.064
Cultural spheres netw.: w. exposure (lag 1 year) 158.652*** 40.625*** —
Colonies netw.: w. exposure 1.387 1.28 —
Clu. 1: Catholic, Spanish-speaking — 2.012* 3.451***
Clu. 2: Not predominantly Muslim African/ East — 0.752 0.895
Asian
Clu. 3: Eastern European and Asian — 2.224** 2.897***
Clu. 4: WEIRD — 1.916* 3.031***
Clu. 5: Predominantly Muslim — Ref. Ref.
Observations 21,910 21,910 21,910
Log likelihood −748.251 −738.824 −746.366
Akaike Inf. Crit. 1514.503 1503.649 1514.731
Discrete-time event history model, hazard ratios, N = 160 countries
Source: WeSIS database, own computation
Note: + p < 0.1; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001
remain in the risk set. The first model estimates the effects of (weighted)
exposure in networks of cultural spheres lagged for one year, colonial his-
tory, and controlling for GDP per capita and levels of democratization.
We adjusted the standard errors for time periods in which several coun-
tries belonged to an overarching entity. Serbia and Macedonia, for
instance, were once part of the former Yugoslavia. Their adoption times
are not necessarily independent from each other and require a correction
of the standard errors (Zeileis et al. 2020).
We get a positive, strong, and significant effect of weighted exposure in
the cultural spheres network on the adoption rate in Model (1), whereas
the effect of weighted exposure in the network of colonial histories is insig-
nificant. In line with our expectation, the network of cultural spheres is an
underlying structure for the diffusion of compulsory education among
countries. Including dummy variables of the cultural spheres-clusters in
Model (2) does not substantially alter the direction and significance of
exposure. The cultural spheres dummies show significant effects in Model

(2). Moreover, three cultural spheres significantly accelerate the adoption
process in Model (3), where we excluded the exposure effects from the
estimation. The reference group is cluster 5, which is the cultural sphere of
countries with a predominantly Muslim population. The reference group
was chosen due to its large intra-cluster difference. Compared with this
reference group, effects of the not predominantly Muslim African/East Asian
cultural sphere do not significantly differ. These countries show no accel-
erated adoption speed compared to predominantly Muslim countries. In
contrast, the adoption rate is increased by a factor of 2.897*** in the Eastern
European and Asian cultural sphere compared with the reference group in
Model (3) and is even increased by a factor of 3.031*** in the WEIRD
cluster and by 3.451*** in the Catholic, Spanish-speaking cluster. We observe
strong evidence for diffusion through ‘pipes’ built from cultural similarity,
the sheer membership in a cultural sphere does significantly raise the
adoption rate of a first compulsory education law in most cases. Regardless
of the exposure through the cultural network, the membership in the clus-
ters 1, 3, and 4 (Catholic, Spanish-speaking, Eastern European and Asian,
and WEIRD) significantly influences the adoption of compulsory educa-
tion positively. In Model (2), the adoption rate is increased by the factors
2.101*, 2.276**, and 1.954* respectively, supporting our hypothesis that
culture around the globe can have an accelerating effect on the diffusion
of compulsory education.
These results clearly signify culture as a relevant variable in macro-
quantitative social science studies, where using a relational approach
brings mechanisms to the fore that would normally be unobserved when
using rigid and clear-cut categorizations. We demonstrate that the risk of
adopting compulsory education for any given state is significantly height-
ened by the adoption of compulsory education in a culturally similar
country. Moreover, not predominantly Muslim African/East Asian and pre-
dominantly Muslim countries show remarkable differences in the timing
of compulsory schooling introduction. Once exposure through cultural
similarity increases, the risk of policy adoption increases as well.
Furthermore, this result corroborates what the map of adopter types
(Fig. 2.1) suggested: Formalization of education through the introduc-
tion of educational institutions appears to be a WEIRD project. However,
when institutionalized education crosses over to other cultural spheres, it

spreads rapidly within that sphere. As predicted by neo-institutionalism,
it seems difficult for countries in other cultural spheres to elude the adop-
tion in the long run; according to our theoretical considerations, we
expected that cultural spheres would mediate the adoption process.
Conclusion
Cultures differ remarkably around the globe. Even though the definition
of culture and the identification of an appropriate level of abstraction are
far from trivial, our empirical analysis reveals different cultural spheres in
the world. Acknowledging these differences at an abstract level does not
necessarily mean to “stereotype and exoticize other people” (Anderson-
Levitt 2012, 441). Contrariwise, from a European academic’s perspec-
tive, our ‘own’ culture and psychology appear exotic and WEIRD
(Henrich 2020). Today’s predominantly WEIRD culture relies on prop-
erly operating and legitimate state institutions, which in contrast to pre-
modern clan societies are the modern form of social order. Public
education systems organize the reproduction of culture and often provide
efficient governability of the literate population by legitimating state
activity. Often, they increase the WEIRD-ness of a population, and it is
not surprising that the propensity to establish such educational programs
differed historically between nation-states. A ‘rational’ organization of
the state, the economy, and other ‘spheres of life’ (Weber 1972), each
endowed with its own criteria of rationality (Lepsius 1994), is a crucial
component of modernity. The rationalization of these ‘spheres of life’,
including education, resulted in powerful technology and social organi-
zation as never seen before. But Weber noticed the destructive potential
of this development and influenced later critical theory (Lukács 1968)
when he described the efficiency of bureaucratic authority as an ‘iron
cage’. Neo-institutionalism further elaborated these theoretical consider-
ations and motivated our hypothesis of a global diffusion of education
policy—in our case, the introduction of compulsory education mediated
by ‘cultural spheres’. We developed the concept of ‘cultural spheres’ as a
response to classifications of cultures that ignore their fuzzy-set nature
and their overlapping boundaries. Even today, differences between cul-

tural spheres become apparent in our data. These include differences
relating to indicators of gender roles, dominant religion, language group,
and political liberties. The results of clustering our time-varying two-
mode networks consisting of countries and cultural characteristics as
node sets revealed five cultural clusters with overlapping boundaries; but
these clusters nevertheless result in a meaningful typology of Catholic,
Spanish-speaking, not predominantly Muslim African and East Asian,
Eastern European and Asian, WEIRD, and predominantly Muslim coun-
tries. Modern states cannot exist without literacy and basic education
(Weymann 2014), so it is not surprising that state-mandated education
began in Western countries and ultimately spread globally.
While ties in the network of cultural spheres strongly influence the dif-
fusion process of compulsory education, we did not find evidence for dif-
fusion via the network of colonial histories. Furthermore, while the
WEIRD cultural sphere does not show the highest adoption rate, the
Catholic, Spanish-speaking cluster does. Compared with the other four cul-
tural spheres, the adoption rate is significantly higher in the Catholic,
Spanish-speaking cluster (Model (3) in Table 2.1). In line with our expecta-
tions, cultural spheres considerably mediate the diffusion of compulsory
education. Moreover, we show that viewing culture in a relational way,
that is, showing the fuzzy boundaries of states grouped together, instead of
in a rigid way, that is, in terms of ‘fault lines’, is beneficial in uncovering
diffusion patterns. Although we just analyzed the introduction of compul-
sory education as a formal institution without considering any content or
curriculum, our results highlight that culture and cultural change strongly
affect the identity of groups and individuals. As a consequence, “when
global ideas enter a local arena, meanings are re-made not only because
local actors inevitably reinterpret ideas in the context of their own frame-
works, but also because they may struggle against the meanings offered or
imposed by global actors” (Anderson-Levitt 2012, 451).
An important limitation of our macro-quantitative diffusion analysis
is the abstract perspective on times-of-adoption, without specifying the
micro-mechanisms of how countries prepare the decision to adopt the
policy. Referring to previous studies, theoretically elaborating diffusion
mechanisms (Gilardi 2016) and providing empirical evidence does not
solve this problem because our data does not provide any information on
which particular mechanism was at work when, for example, Chile or
Pakistan introduced compulsory education. Therefore, future research
should combine diffusion analysis with qualitative case studies. Another
limitation of this chapter is the focus on horizontal interdependencies,
that is, networks between countries. Due to the strong influence of inter-
national organizations in education policy-making in recent years, it
might be interesting to include a membership network of different IOs in
future publications.
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right holder.
3
The Global Trajectories of Compulsory
Education: Clustering Sequences
of Policy Development
Fabian Besche-Truthe
Introduction1
Compulsory education became an imperative trait of sound state educa-
tion systems at the very latest with the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights (UN General Assembly 1948, Article 26, 1). Ever since the
Education for All Dakar Framework for Action, in which the members of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) committed to ensuring access to “free and compulsory pri-
mary education” (2000, 8), a nation-state without compulsory education
has hardly been imaginable. In fact, only a handful of United Nations
1
SFB 1342.
F. Besche-Truthe (*)

66 F. Besche-Truthe
(UN) members do not have a compulsory education law in place; with

Solomon Islands, Oman, and Bhutan being counted among them. Seeing
as the world is pledged to Education for All, universal primary education
(mentioned in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)), and uni-
versal secondary education (mentioned in the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)), one can assume that making education mandatory would
constitute a viable first step toward achieving these goals. In accordance
with the SDGs, extending the duration of compulsory education would
be the second step. The extension can be targeted by either raising the
school-leaving age or lowering the school-entry age, thus making prepri-
mary education compulsory.
While the social sciences agree on the value of a sound education sys-
tem, the focus of international comparative research has been on the
determinants of the spread or retention of specific educational structures
across the globe (Busemeyer and Trampusch 2011 provide a good over-
view). Causes relating to education system transformation have also been
extensively analyzed. In this chapter, I take a step back and look at the
larger picture, the constitutive factor of a state education system: compul-
sory education laws. In contrast to past studies, I aim to explore the
development of compulsory education and its duration over time. How
did policies concerning compulsory education develop globally? Are any
trends discernible? Are there clusters of countries that develop similarly
regarding compulsory education legislation?
Starting with the premise that there are different ideas about the neces-
sary duration of education, compulsory education policy constitutes an
observable manifestation of the importance of state-led education.
Moreover, recognizing that these views are changing with time, ideas
manifest themselves within policy changes. Therefore, research should
spotlight the very changes over time. The policy developments grant
insight into how compulsory education evolved in past decades. Finding
common developments in nation-states might support further research
on other policy developments and highlight commonalities previously
unseen. As described below, past and current scholarship, regardless of
theoretical and methodological background, focus on either the origins
or outcomes of policies. Using snapshots or predefined outcome
3 The Global Trajectories of Compulsory Education… 67
variables, these studies disregard developments that unfold over long

stretches of history.
Drawing on recent developments in Sequence Analysis (SQA), this
study seeks to depict and analyze the trajectories of compulsory educa-
tion policies in 167 countries from 1970 to 2020. SQA lends itself as a
method of inquiry because it enables the researcher to regard the whole
trajectory of policy development as a single unit of analysis. Thus, it
allows us to draw upon and explore the temporal context of policy devel-
opment. Here, context becomes a point of entry for thinking about how
processes of change relate to one another in an environment that unfurls
over extended periods of time (Pierson 2004, 172). This opens avenues
previously untrodden and allows one to ask new questions, that is, how
did policy develop, and how is that different from the same policy in a
different location at distinct times? How can we study dynamics macro-
quantitatively without losing the focus on the temporal and spatial con-
text? How can this be accomplished with as little predetermination as
possible? I utilize recent methodological developments for an inquiry
that is, both, broad across time and space as well as narrow in analyzing
the development paths. My chapter yields the first exploration into dif-
ferent trajectories of the duration of compulsory education and how these
trajectories can be subsumed and clustered into specific develop-
ment paths.
The chapter continues with a short overview of the current state of
compulsory education legislation and summarizes potential explanatory
theories that are widely used in education policy research. After present-
ing recent empirical evidence on the global expansion of compulsory
education, I make the case for a descriptive rediscovery of changing com-
pulsory education policies. A brief introduction into the method of SQA
is followed by a detailed description of different trajectories of compul-
sory education policies. Furthermore, a clustering of similar trajectories
based solely on the data and calculated with an Optimal Matching algo-
rithm is presented. In the end, I provide an initial explanation regarding
these different trajectories and conclude with an outlook regarding the
focus of future research.
68 F. Besche-Truthe
The State of Compulsory Education Policy

Even before the two World Wars, education was seen in the Western
world as a salvation for a myriad of social, political, and economic prob-
lems. In Prussia, compulsory education was introduced because of the
need for a polis that fit with the hierarchical structure of society as well as
a military that was able to sufficiently follow orders. In line with the
Pietist puritan tradition, the young United States of America introduced
compulsory schooling state by state, starting in New England
(Rickenbacker 1999). In the Ottoman Empire, compulsory education
was introduced in 1869 and was intended to build a coherent Ottoman
culture and populace (Cicek 2012).
On the other hand, former colonies quickly introduced compulsory
schooling after the surge of independence—some even before formal
independence. In Ghana, for example, the legislative Assembly of 1951
“declared basic education to be free and compulsory for school-aged chil-
dren” (Marlow-Ferguson 2002, 506), even though Ghana only became
officially independent in 1957. In this ‘new era’, education was seen as
embodying the ideals of a caring and prosperous state. Education became
a human right and compulsory education an obligation for the nation-
state. This is evident in the Bolivian entry into compulsory education; for
example, the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario introduced com-
pulsory education as an attempt to reach new generations in their
endeavor to build a truly democratic republic (Marlow-Ferguson
2002, 72).
Compulsory education is a very divisive political issue. Changes are
difficult to adopt on the policy level and even harder to implement on the
ground. Political struggles revolve around ethical questions (Hodgson
2016; Tan 2010) as well as budgetary issues. Extending mandatory
schooling drains governments’ monetary resources. That is why, in India,
an extension of the right to free and compulsory education from the ages
of six to fourteen to the ages of three to eighteen has been dropped from
a recent education policy change, specifically because of the “financial
burden” the state would have to bear (Dutta 2019). A state that has weak
institutional capacities might also have a hard time monitoring whether
the duration of compulsory schooling is being fulfilled, especially in

rural areas.
xplanatory Attempts for Compulsory

E
Education Policymaking
Having just explored historic and current developments of compulsory
education policies, it is now time to focus on theories that try to explain
the convergence of education policies. In line with this edited volume,
the theories presented here build the canon of explanations on the devel-
opment of ‘modern’ education systems. They either emphasize ideational
influences, as evident in neo-institutionalist accounts (e.g. Ramirez 2013)
and global economic influences, as shown in the World System approach
(e.g. Griffiths and Imre 2013), or a mixture of both while highlighting
specific national factors, as carried out in Cultural Political Economy
(e.g. Dale 2000).
Proponents of the isomorphism thesis (Chap. 1) can be subsumed under
the general headline of neo-institutionalists. When considering the global
convergence of state structures, they highlight the normative influence of
a World Culture pressuring policymakers to implement seemingly ratio-
nal institutions. Neo-institutionalist theory argues that education poli-
cies spread around the globe through globally theorized models of ‘what
is a problem that needs to be solved’ and by defining the worth of the
‘good’ salvation for that problem (Strang and Meyer 1993). The spread of
idealistic norms has culminated in an impressive isomorphism of state
structures and policies not predicted by other theories. Yet, “world cul-
tural models are highly idealized and internally inconsistent, making
them in principle impossible to actualize” (Meyer et al. 1997, 154). Thus,
the theory acknowledges the phenomenon of decoupling, leaving some
room for diverging policy developments.
However, neo-institutionalist explanations lack an engagement that
goes beyond the sole valuing of some abstract model of education. In a
volume edited by Anderson-Levitt (2003b) many anthropological case
studies find a common model of schooling, for example, the so-called
70 F. Besche-Truthe
egg-carton school (Anderson-Levitt 2003a, 6) but they also show that

these models are actually lived, experienced, and built in very different
ways according to the (sub-)national contexts. Although World Culture
theory claims to describe diffusion processes of abstract outcome vari-
ables quite well, it ignores probable conflating mechanisms and time
inconsistencies in policy adoption (Dale 2000). Time, as a variable, gets
degraded to specific structural frameworks, whereas norm development
becomes universally influential, impacting policies with increasing rapid-
ity. Variation in national institutional evolution, including the speed,
order, and sequencing of it, is seen to starkly diminish since World War
II (Boli et al. 1985).
Another approach analyzing the convergence of state structures can be
subsumed under the headline of realist approaches, which culminated in
the World System approach. It assumes political units are tied together in
a world system grounded in capitalism (Wallerstein 2005, 24). This sys-
tem is divided into the core, semi-periphery, and periphery. Membership
of countries in one of these spheres dictates the possibilities of policy-
making because of the divergence of valuable production processes along
with the capital capabilities emerging from that. From this view, eco-
nomic inequalities determine specific modalities of “[s]chooling, rather
than serving the interests of the majority in the periphery, abets the pro-
cess of capital accumulation by hegemonic actors” (Arnove 2009, 105).
Global isomorphism might be inhibited through the different positions
in this system. However, widening the agenda to also consider dependen-
cies and hegemonic coercion, the World System approach leaves little
room for intragroup differences on paths toward similar outcomes.
Moreover, the theory is depicting a widespread institutional stasis in
which most countries are locked in their position. This translates to a
static policy arena in which, if ever, changes are rare and should overlap
depending on the distance to the core.
Contrary to the purely constructivist and Marxist-oriented approaches,
Cultural Political Economy (CPE) attributes changes in policy to a mul-
titude of factors, including changing political and economic parameters
(Dale 2000). Using a CPE framework, Toni Verger et al. (2016) focus
specifically on developmental paths. The authors find that although
global discourse on education privatization is surging and has to some
extent, elevated into a global norm, processes constituting the privatiza-

tion and policy outcomes “can be extremely diverse in nature” (Verger
et al. 2016, 148). The authors detect six different paths toward privatiza-
tion. Thus, on the surface, seemingly congruent policy developments are
comprised of polylithic trajectories that are influenced by different agents
as well as different ideational, economic, and political rationales. The goal
of the book by Verger et al. is an in-depth analysis of the different clusters
of trajectories that led to education privatization. I build on that frame-
work to quantitatively explore the routes compulsory education policy
took in different locations around the world over 50 years.
All the approaches mentioned explain some similarities and dissimi-
larities of state education systems. Nonetheless, research has been mainly
limited to a focus on either the origins, the output, or the outcome of
education policy. Attempts at answering why nation-states initially
required children to receive an education largely ignored differences in
timing, sequencing, and the determining factors inherent to this contex-
tual view. Research focuses on ‘why’ policies were implemented in the
first place (e.g. Meyer et al. 1997; Wallerstein 2005). In this regard, event
history approaches, although taking duration until an event seriously,
have the caveat of a teleological focus, that is, the introduction of one
(abstract) policy. While Seitzer, Besche-Truthe, and Windzio (Chap. 2)
investigate the influence of cultural similarity regarding the introduction
of compulsory education, the analysis stops at one point in time. Those
attempts focus on a decisive answer on ‘when’ policy adoptions happen.
Still, the method, by design, leaves blind spots, especially the possible
steps taken until a predefined end-state is reached and focuses on one
transition. Hence, it cannot answer the question of what happens after an
initial adoption, and, since the method is focused on rather abstract pol-
icy determinants, it cannot answer exactly ‘what’ was adopted.
In outcome-centered research, duration of compulsory education is
used as an independent variable in assessing the influence of longer
schooling on enrollment and attendance (e.g. Landes and Solmon 1972),
dropout rates (Diaz-Serrano 2020), poverty reduction (Zhang and
Minxia 2006), fertility (Wilson 2017), health (Courtin et al. 2019), and
so on (see also Stephens and Yang 2014 for a myriad of effects).
72 F. Besche-Truthe
Precise investigations of the institutional change of compulsory educa-

tion are a rare endeavor. When conducted, qualitative case studies account
for the majority. These illustrate the highly conflictual nature of compul-
sory education laws. For instance, in the year 2000, after almost
thirty years of denying the necessity of any law, the Singaporean govern-
ment quite suddenly argued for ten years of compulsory education (Tan
2010). However, due to pressure from home-schooling parents and the
Malay/Muslim community, attending mostly madrasah schools, compul-
sory education was finally introduced in 2000 with a duration of six
years. Accordingly, Hodgson (2016) illustrates the remarkably ethical
discourse regarding a proposed increase in duration within Western
Australia. The policy discourse on extending the school-leaving age was
highly idealistic and hinged on neoliberalist themes (Hodgson 2016,
502–503). Similar discourses, highlighting the need for longer educa-
tion, especially for young people at risk, can be observed in a number of
Western countries starting from the 2000s (Hodgson 2016, 495ff).
Contrary to the case studies, Murtin and Viarengo (2011) analyze fac-
tors influencing the expansion of compulsory education from 1950 to
2000 in fifteen European states. They detect strong evidence for beta-
convergence: Countries with lower initial values extended the duration
more than those with higher initial values. The most statistically compel-
ling reason for the general trend of extending compulsory education is
trade openness (Murtin and Viarengo 2011, 505). This does hold true for
the investigated Western European cases, but leaves open whether the
same mechanism can be detected in post- or nonindustrialized countries.
While Murtin and Viarengo (2011) focus on the role of economic
influence when it comes to the expansion of compulsory education in
postwar Europe, Chapter 2 introduces the connection of event history
analysis with a relational approach. Nonetheless, empirical attempts like
the ones just mentioned use models that compare country-years and not
country-trajectories, leaving the specific developments per country unat-
tended. They might give answers to ‘what’ policies were adopted as well
as ‘why’ and ‘when’ those were adopted, but they are unable to discern ‘in
which order’ changes happened. Only a focus on the developmental
paths enables one to combine the juxtaposition of the origin, output,
outcome, and the very steps that lead or decisively did not lead to the
state currently observed. This helps to recognize that any process is envi-
roned by its temporal location, its place within a sequence of occurrences
(Pierson 2004, 172).
With this chapter, I aim to analyze compulsory education policy out-
lined in a way that takes sequences of change serious and, thus, investi-
gates choices of policymakers around the globe structured through the
progress of time. In this approach, policy outlines are not seen determin-
istically but due to structural factors like timing, order, and sequencing,
display much more contingency than assumed by classic social science
(Howlett and Goetz 2014, 480). In the words of Pierson (2004, 172), I
want to know not just ‘what’ the duration of compulsory education was
and ‘when’ change occurred but ‘in which order’ changes were made. As
an additional feat, I am able to see ‘for how long’ the state of one policy
was static and not changing at all.
Methodological Remarks
“For many years, our usual approach in sociology has been to think about
cases independent of one another and, often, of the past” (Abbott 1995,
94). According to Abbott, empirical research erases the stories behind
social reality by focusing on causality based on some variables’ manifesta-
tions. Contingent narratives become impossible (Abbott 1992, 429).
However, this does not apply to all research. There have been remarkable
attempts at describing the emergence of compulsory education laws and
the expansion of education opportunities, which take the past and spe-
cifically social action into account. This action is either intentional—
motivated first and foremost by economic situations and interdependencies
as in a capitalist World System—or unintentional—motivated by institu-
tionalized ideals in a World Culture. However, these theories have been
starkly criticized by empirically oriented researchers for lacking causal
variable-oriented applications. These critiques are correct in their assess-
ment but wrong in their solutions. What is missing in current research,
especially in political science, is a thorough description of policies, their
histories, and evolutions. Although not a new methodology, it is worth
mentioning the unique techniques of Japanese comparative education. In
74 F. Besche-Truthe
their view, the primary focus should be on the description of unique fea-
tures within a given area of study “rather than the discovery of ‘universal’
laws and theories” (Takayama 2015, 39).
By placing compulsory education policy as the focal point, I aim to
analyze the policy’s trajectories globally. In SQA, the unit of analysis is
the sequence itself. This goes further than a time-series, cross-section
model because I do not rip apart yearly observations of compulsory edu-
cation durations nor try to correlate yearly measured variables on these
dependent values. Event History Analysis takes time seriously, especially
process time until an event. Unfortunately, it is focused only on a transi-
tion from one category to another. It thereby leaves more complex steps
unattended. Instead, I take the whole trajectory of compulsory education
duration as one case. The aim is to first separately describe the trajectories
of the duration of compulsory education for a large number of countries
and then to search for patterns of similar trajectories. Through the recon-
textualization, that is, regarding institutional change not as single inci-
dents but the focus on the very development of one policy, I am able to
answer questions, previous research was unable to ask: In which order did
the extension of compulsory education occur? When were critical junc-
tures that changed the outlook of compulsory education? How is a policy
developing not in one country but in relation to other countries as well
as to time? Hence, I argue that it is important ‘when’ institutionalization
of a specific duration of compulsory education occurs. It is furthermore
important to investigate how these embedded aspects interact with the
broader social context of other nation-states’ policy developments (see
Pierson 2004, 77f ). Analyzing sequences allows me to identify linkages
between processes in distinct spaces and at distinct points in time.
My dataset contains the number of years of compulsory education as
defined in the legal framework. In building the dataset, I started with
data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), where more his-
toric data have been added from a variety of sources.2 In total, the dataset
covers 167 countries over a time span of fifty years from 1970 until 2020.
In-depth analyses of certain cases illustrate difficulties regarding sources
2
I am especially grateful to my research assistant Philip Roth for helping to compile this vast and
encompassing dataset of which I only use a small amount.
and the correct definition of compulsory education. For instance, while

the UIS website describes the compulsory education in Guatemala as
encompassing all children aged 0–15, which would result in sixteen years
of compulsory education, the International Bureau of Education (2011)
states that compulsory education consists of 3 years preprimary, 6 years
primary, and 3 years secondary education; culminating in twelve years.
The latter value has finally been coded. In case of uncertainties for coun-
tries with state responsibility over education, for example, Canada, the
coding has been oriented on the law established for the most populated
state or the capital. In any case, it tries to mirror what UNESCO reports
on the federal nation-state. The data are available in the Welfare State
Information System (https://wesis.org).
As previously noted, I am not interested in the specific time point of
the policy’s first introduction, but rather in the trajectory. Thus, in the
following analysis, I start my inquiry after a surge of former colonies
gained independence for more consistency. The data were recoded into
sequences using the R package TraMineR (Gabadinho et al. 2011):
“[S]equences are made of three basic dimensions: the nature of the suc-
cessive states, chosen among the alphabet; the order in which they occur;
[and] their duration, that is, the duration of constant subsequences”
(Blanchard 2011, 4 emphasis in original). In my case, the nature of the
state is the number of years of compulsory education. The sequences are
ordered according to successive years in calendar time. Changes in the
duration of compulsory education have been coded according to the de
jure implementation of the policy.
Sequences of the Duration

of Compulsory Education
Figure 3.1 shows all sequences ordered by their starting value in the year
1970. The horizontal lines, each represents one nation-state and the col-
ors show the valid duration of compulsory education in that specific year.
One can see that a few sequences show no change in their duration. These
countries have a stagnant trajectory. On the other hand, some seem very
76 F. Besche-Truthe
All Sequences (n=167)
0 years
4 years
5 years
Sequences
6 years
7 years
8 years
9 years
10 years
11 years
12 years
13 years
14 years
15 years
1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018
Year
Fig. 3.1 All sequences of the duration of compulsory education policy
active in policy changes. One can discern a general trend toward more
years of compulsory education. However, timing and actual extension,
that is, by how many years, is difficult to systematize with this first large-
scale observation.
To provide a better overview and a first glance at different trajectories,
Figs. 3.2 and 3.3 show the sequences grouped by income group and cul-
tural spheres, which have been used in Chap. 2. Following economic argu-
ments, I would suspect stark differences between income groups and
coherent trajectories within a group. If a World Culture is influential, I
would suspect no discernible differences in the economic as well as in the
cultural spheres.
Through an economic grouping of the trajectories, one can see that
although some countries never changed the duration of their compulsory
schooling, a dynamic is detectable. General differences become a bit
Fig. 3.2 Sequences grouped by income classification according to the WDI by the
World Bank
more discernible when looking at different income groups. However,

there is remarkable variance in the four different groups as defined in the
World Development Indicators (WDI). The durations range from five to
fifteen years in lower middle-income countries and from six to four-
teen years in high-income countries. One can detect on average, high-
income countries have longer durations of compulsory schooling with a
mean of around 11 years. In contrast, low-income countries have around
eight years of compulsory education on average. The largest differences
are detectable in the middle-income groups, in which we see a similar
pattern of average durations in upper middle-income countries, which
have higher values than lower middle-income groups. Interestingly, there
are countries surpassing high-income countries in duration with fourteen
to fifteen years of compulsory education. These high values are possible
78 F. Besche-Truthe
Fig. 3.3 Sequences grouped by cultural spheres
when preprimary education becomes compulsory—policies high-income

countries seem unwilling to introduce (GSP Digest 2019).
Regarding grouping by cultural spheres (Fig. 3.3), there are huge intra-
cultural differences observable. In ‘dominantly Muslim’ countries, the
durations range from five to twelve years from the 2000s onward. Given
the theoretical framing of this edited volume (Chap. 1), one can detect a
tendency toward likeness in culturally similar groups and concurrently, a
resistance toward an increasing global isomorphism. This becomes evi-
dent from the stark differences regarding the duration in compulsory
education between the ‘WEIRD’ and ‘Catholic, Spanish-speaking’ coun-
tries. In the latter, the general trend toward compulsory preprimary edu-
cation is detectable through the very high durations of compulsory
education, which in most cases means an earlier start to education rather
than a later completion. Since UNESCO (2000) is largely propagating
these models, vertical interdependencies seem to be an accelerator for

that phenomenon. However, ‘WEIRD’ countries are largely holding
back from implementing policies regarding preprimary education as
mandatory.
Additionally, groupings by democratization level in the years 1970,
1992, 2000, or 2018 (not presented here) do not show similarities in
trajectories. The grouped sequences are very diverse in their outset.
Nevertheless, the duration of compulsory schooling per se might have a
strong effect on democratization itself, making it an inverse relationship
(as suggested by Paglayan 2020).
In sum, we can deduce partial evidence for countries in higher income
groups having longer durations of compulsory education earlier. However,
this does not manifest in a simplistic center, semi-periphery, and periph-
ery manner. Aside from the intragroup differences, it is still interesting to
see that the semi-periphery, operationalized through the upper middle-
income group, exceeds a large portion of the high-income group at the
end of the observation. Especially the surge of making preprimary educa-
tion compulsory in South American countries contributes to the picture.
Taking diffusion mechanisms seriously, I do not expect to observe perfect
homogeneity in development paths. Indeed, the heterogeneity is detect-
able, especially in later years of the time frame. However, these differences
go beyond what would be expected by a diffusion mechanism that
assumes a one-sided direction from Western countries to others in the
world. In other words, the norms of an ever-increasing grip on child-
hood—which decisively includes education for very young children—
overtook the former hegemonic WEIRD countries. In the future, one
might expect to see the pattern develop as non-WEIRD countries adopt
compulsory preprimary education first and through the interplay of hori-
zontal and vertical interdependencies, the policy spreads around the
globe. This direction is the opposite of what is observed within compul-
sory education in general (see Chap. 2). Lastly, it shows the investigation
timing is relevant because the picture will probably look very different in
2030 or later.
80 F. Besche-Truthe
Clustering the Trajectories

For answering the question on how trajectories might be grouped
together, it is now time to benefit from SQA as a metric analysis tool that
searches for similar patterns across a multitude of sequences (Abbott
1995, 105). SQA makes it possible to compute distances between
sequences and classify specific trajectories. The Optimal Matching (OM)
algorithm lends itself perfectly for assessing dissimilarity. In a nutshell,
the algorithm calculates which values of a sequence, when compared to
another one, need to be changed to make the two sequences look similar.
Thus, “an OM distance is the sum of two terms, a weighted sum of time
shifts (indels) and a weighted sum of the mismatches (substitutions)
remaining after the time shifts” (Studer and Ritschard 2016, 14). The
algorithm goes through all the sequences and calculates the least ‘costly’
set of operations necessary to turn one sequence into another. Here, costs
refer to values that have been assigned to operations, that is, the weights
for every single operation, which get summarised in the end to define
dissimilarity between sequences.
Since we are not only dealing with ordered values but also metric ones,
I opted to define the weights for operations in a straightforward manner.
A substitution of eight years of compulsory education with nine years
costs 0.1, substituting eight years with twelve years costs 0.4. Thus, the
costs are proportionate to the actual difference in duration of compulsory
schooling. The only nonlinear substitution is present when a country has
no compulsory education law at a given time, that is, they have a dura-
tion of zero years of compulsory education. Substituting this by any
number of years has the overall maximum weight of 1.5, thus represent-
ing the stark differences between having some form of mandatory educa-
tion and having none at all. Studer and Ritschard (2016) report that by
defining the costs for indel operations, researchers can influence the time
sensitivity of the algorithm. High values render the distance measure very
time sensitive because substitutions become increasingly cheaper than
shifting sequences. Accordingly, I set the indel costs as low as mathemati-
cally meaningful to 0.8 so that the analysis would be as independent of
small differences in the timing of policy enactment as possible. In the
end, it is not my goal to overestimate time differences. For example,

Indonesia and Syria both changed the duration of compulsory education
from six to nine years; however, the former did so in 2003 and the latter
in 2002. This one-year difference between them should not be more
highly valued than the closeness in their actual overlapping trajectory.
Let us consider the example sequences of Mexico and Panama’s dura-
tions of compulsory education from 1990 to 2010 in Fig. 3.4. Both
countries start with a duration of six years of compulsory education but
follow different paths after five observations. While the lower sequence
(Panama) shows only one change in the state of the policy, that is, from
six to eleven years, the one at the top (Mexico) shows a gradual increase
regarding the duration of mandatory education from six to nine, and
then eleven years. In this example, the algorithm, despite the low indel
costs, opts for only substituting the values to calculate dissimilarity. For
the period of 1993–1994, this means a sum of 0.3 + 0.3 and for the
period of 1995–2000, this means the sum of the difference of 0.2 for a
duration of six years. The dissimilarity is thus: 0.3*2 + 0.2*6 = 1.8.
The output of the OM calculation is a matrix that depicts the dissimi-
larity of countries’ compulsory education law trajectories in the years
1970–2020. Using this matrix, I calculate clusters with the PAM (parti-
tioning around medoids) algorithm as described by Kaufman and
Rousseeuw (1990). The goal of this clustering algorithm is to assign each
object to the nearest representative object. The representative object is
defined “as that object of the cluster for which the average dissimilarity to
all the objects of the cluster is minimal.” (Kaufman and Rousseeuw 1990,
72). Although an elbow and silhouette test suggests four and two clusters,
respectively, I opted, after several runs of the algorithm, for an
Fig. 3.4 Example sequences (Mexico and Panama from 1990–2010)

82 F. Besche-Truthe
eight-cluster solution. In a four-cluster solution, almost two-thirds of

sequences would be part of one cluster, making the intracluster differ-
ences too high to analyze. Nevertheless, the tests show that I operate on
rather slim margins. Holding true to the explorative goal of this chapter,
this solution gives insights previously unseen. However, some intercluster
differences are difficult to account for. Moreover, changing the time
frame certainly changes the clustering. It is imperative to, again, stress
that this chapter is not intended to draw causal relations or all-encom-
passing judgments from the clustering presented here. Nonetheless, we
can generally take hints and insights from this endeavor.
Hence, the chosen solution produces clusters that are coherent in their
trajectories and still downsized in a way that makes it possible to analyze
and describe them. In Fig. 3.5, the trajectories of the eight distinct
Fig. 3.5 Sequences grouped by cluster

clusters are shown. Next, I describe the different groups of trajectories

separately.
Resilient Latecomers (Cluster 1)
The first cluster consists mostly of countries that did not introduce any
compulsory education up until 2020. Although four countries intro-
duced the policy very late and with large variation in durations, these are
still part of the cluster. Similarity to one another for a long time, that is,
having no compulsory education policy, is the key factor in building this
cluster. After several years, we could expect the countries to become
increasingly different in their durations, therefore, more similar to coun-
tries in other clusters. A large intragroup variety is visible, especially
regarding countries that introduced any compulsion late. For instance,
while Aruba introduced compulsory education with a duration of
13 years, Zambia’s first legislation mandates almost half of that.
Stagnant Short (Cluster 2)
Countries in this cluster started with short durations of compulsory edu-

cation in 1970. After its introduction, there is a general tendency for an
increase in the duration of compulsory education for some countries. The
extensions are moderate and not as large as in the fifth cluster. However,
this development began later in the 2000s, if at all. In the Philippines,
six-year primary education was compulsory until 2011. In the same year,
with the enactment of the K-12 reforms, secondary education was
extended from four to six years and divided into two levels: four years of
Junior High School and two years of Senior High School. All six years of
secondary education are compulsory and free of charge for public schools.
Additionally, one-year preprimary education became mandatory, which
culminates to a total duration of thirteen years. In Rwanda, on the other
hand, compulsory education started in 1962 with six years of primary
school. A 1979 reform tried to extend primary school, but this did not
hold for long and as ethnic tensions grew, the grades were essentially
84 F. Besche-Truthe
eliminated again. After the genocide, Rwanda followed quite a unique

path and extended compulsory education via the ‘9-Year-Basic-Education
Policy’ in 2007 to extend mandatory education through senior secondary
school which is still regarded as basic education (Mathisen 2012, 108–9).
Extending Middle of the Pack (Cluster 3)
Consisting of forty-five countries, this is the largest cluster by far and it

naturally shows the largest intragroup differences when regarding it as
cross sections for specific years. Concerning the trajectories, however, we
see that it mostly starts with middle-range durations. While very few
countries decrease the duration for a short period of time, most increase
it starting as early as the 1970s. The trajectories show a rather similar
path: extensions of duration occur in two waves, at the end of the 1970s
and around the 2010s. Especially during the latter wave, it seems that the
duration of compulsory education converges toward rather long ones.
For instance, the Dominican Republic shows the highest duration of
compulsory education, that is, fifteen years in 2010. This was achieved by
extending compulsion to three years of preprimary education. It now
includes children from ages three to seventeen at the end of secondary
education. The trajectory is similar to Ecuador’s, in that both extend the
durations gradually over time. This pattern of extending compulsory
education toward younger children is also detectable in Brazil, Chile, and
Costa Rica. Nonetheless, not all countries in cluster 3 end up with these
high durations: While Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia extended
compulsory education by one year in the 2000s, Croatia stayed with
eight years throughout the time frame.
From Zero to Long (Cluster 4)
This particular cluster consists of countries with no compulsory educa-

tion until roughly 1990 but then introduced long durations of ten to
eleven years. While both Belize and Sudan introduced compulsory edu-
cation in 1990 with a duration of eight years, Malawi started with five
years of duration, which was then extended to eight years. The longest
duration is mandated for children in Kenya. It was the last country in this
cluster to introduce compulsion in 2008 but then became a frontrunner
by extending the duration from eight to twelve years of education.
From Short to Long (Cluster 5)
Contrary to the previous cluster, these countries implemented compul-

sory education by 1970. Starting in the mid to late 1980s, the previously
short durations were extended, in some cases by a large margin reaching
durations of up to fifteen years. The timing for these extensions is earlier
than most countries within cluster 3. Paraguay and Argentina have simi-
lar paths; they both started with six years of compulsory education and
extended the duration to nine, ten and eventually thirteen years, with
Argentina extending to fourteen years. The largest difference in timing of
these policies is only three years and while Paraguay was a bit earlier in
the 1990s, Argentina is now quicker to extend. Another example of these
steady extensions includes Turkey: When the Republic was founded in
1923, five years of primary education for six to eleven-year-olds became
compulsory. From 1997 onward, compulsory education encompassed
eight years of primary school, after which pupils could receive a second-
ary non-mandatory education at a four-year lyceum. “Another reform
abolished the continuous primary school education and replaced it in
2012/2013 with a three-level, 12-year compulsory schooling divided into
a 4-year primary school, a 4-year middle school, and a 4-year lyceum”
(Karakaşoğlu and Tonbul 2015, 828).
Finally, a somewhat unconventional path becomes evident when look-
ing at Thailand, where compulsory education was initially expanded in
1960 from four to seven years by extending the primary education by
three years. However, after democratization in 1977, the system was
rebuilt and the length of primary school was decreased by one year, which
was added to upper secondary school, in effect decreasing compulsory
education. Nevertheless, with the National Education Plan of 1999,
lower secondary became compulsory, resulting in a duration of nine years.
86 F. Besche-Truthe
Long and Extending (Cluster 6)
Subsumed under the headline of this cluster are countries that already
started with long durations of compulsory education in 1970. Almost all
of them went on to extend these long durations further down the line.
No waves of extensions can be detected. Moreover, those at the bottom
in the 1970s converged toward the long durations of roughly four-
teen years, showing a good exemplary case of uncoordinated beta-
convergence. This holds especially true for the rather nonlinear trajectory
Peru shows: In 1972, the first three years of secondary education were
moved to basic education, which made it compulsory and extended the
duration from six to ten years. However, this reform was abolished in the
1980s bringing the former structure back (Chuquilin Cubas 2011).
Then, the constitution of 1993 declared education as compulsory for
preprimary, primary, and secondary levels again (Marlow-Ferguson 2002,
1047). In the end, compulsion was extended to upper secondary educa-
tion, resulting in fourteen years of compulsory education.
Another decrease in compulsory schooling happened in Azerbaijan,
where after the fall of the USSR compulsory education law prescribed a
nine years’ duration, instead of the former ten years. Nevertheless, after
some time, the duration was extended to eleven years in 2011.
Interestingly, this new Education Law, making general secondary educa-
tion mandatory, makes the Azerbaijani education system almost entirely
conform to the principles of the Bologna process (International Bureau
of Education 2011).
Late Start Extenders (Cluster 7)
Countries here start with no compulsory education, although these poli-

cies had been introduced in 2014 at the very latest. The trajectories are
similar to those in cluster 4; however, the first introduction shows a rather
short duration. Nonetheless, a decisive tendency for longer durations is
detectable. While Cabo Verde extended compulsory education from six
to ten years right away, Lebanon shows a stepwise extension from six to
nine and finally ten years. Malaysia introduced compulsory education in
2003 with a duration of six years and did not alter this policy. This holds
true for Cameroon and Singapore as well. Given the discussions in
Singapore before the introduction of compulsory education, described
above, it is clear why the government might be hesitant to extend com-
pulsory education, although the government initially advocated for a lon-
ger duration (Tan 2010).
Late and Stagnant (Cluster 8)
Similar to the previous cluster and the From zero to long cluster, countries
here had no compulsory education in the 1970s. In most cases, there was
no change since the introduction at the end of the 1990s. This is shown
by the trajectories of Yemen and Mali in which a nine-year compulsory
education was introduced in 1991 and 1992, respectively. These policies
still stand today. In Qatar, on the other hand, compulsory education was
introduced later in the Compulsory Education Law No. 25 of 2001 cov-
ering primary and secondary education that culminate in twelve years of
education. Sri Lanka is the only member of this cluster that extended the
duration of compulsory schooling by expanding compulsion through
senior secondary school, that is, Grade 11.
Global Picture on Clusters of Compulsory

A
Education Duration
Finally, I look at the global picture of the duration of compulsory educa-
tion. Figure 3.5 shows the difficulty of choosing the correct clustering
method, since it remains unclear why some trajectories are part of one
cluster and not another. Especially, some countries in cluster 3 (Extending
middle of the pack) and cluster 6 (Long and extending) have very similarly
looking trajectories. So, we need to review the global picture with the
caveat that always comes with drawing strict distinctions where ranges
would be more appropriate. When regarding a longer time frame, say
from 1900 to today, I suspect the two mentioned clusters (depicted in
purple and yellow) to be part of a similar supercluster. Nevertheless, we
88 F. Besche-Truthe
see subtle differences on average, so I urge readers not to draw conclusive

absolutes of, for example, ‘Canada is significantly different from the US’,
but rather, acknowledge differences in the developments of the duration
of compulsory education, as subtle as they may be.
Moreover, there are several key elements that we can take away from
this endeavor: As opposed to cross-sectional observations, examining tra-
jectories helps highlight differences and similarities that would not have
been visible before. Some countries followed a specific wave of either
introducing or extending compulsory education starting from the 1990s
until the mid-2000s. After that, the pace and margins of extensions
increased, especially concerning countries that have had shorter dura-
tions of compulsory education. One first intuitive correlation might be
traced back to international initiatives, especially the Education for All
Framework for Action, which might have had a large impact on countries
to either introduce or extend compulsory education.
Furthermore, the degree to which domestic factors vary in clusters is
striking. For a comparison, I defined the dominant religion of a country
in 1970, in that at least 33% of the population is adherent to it as well as
the Gender Rights variable used in building the cultural spheres. The lat-
ter is an index that combines the “Women’s political empowerment
index” (Sundström et al. 2015) and the “Exclusion by Gender Index”
(Coppedge et al. 2019) from the Varieties of Democracy Project. The
former takes its raw data from the World Religion Dataset (Maoz and
Henderson 2013). Additionally, I investigated the percentage of high-
and low-income countries in the distinct clusters. Although there is at
least one high-income country in every cluster, the highest percentages
are in the Long and extending, the Extending middle of the pack and inter-
estingly, also one in the cluster of Resilient latecomers. Furthermore,
against first intuition, in the group of Resilient latecomers no country is
defined as low income. In other clusters at least one low-income country
can be found: in the From zero to long almost half of the countries and in
the Late and stagnant cluster even more than half are low-income coun-
tries. Moreover, the Long and extending cluster shows the highest mean of
the Gender Rights value, while the Late and stagnant countries show the
lowest mean value. Interestingly, the Stagnant short countries have the
second lowest mean gender value. Concerning the dominant religion
there is no pattern discernible. In every cluster, at least half of the mem-

bers have Christianity as a dominant religion, except the Resilient late-
comers, where the percentage of countries is still over 40%. The Extending
middle of the pack with the Stagnant short shows the highest variability in
dominant religions, being made up of Animist and Syncretic religions,
Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and nonreligious persons.
Again, this shows that with rather broad domestic variables it is hardly
possible to find correlations on compulsory education policy
trajectories.
Additionally, when plotting the previously described cluster onto a
world map (Fig. 3.6), it is astonishing to see that for some clusters a geo-
graphic pattern is hardly detectable. The largest cluster of the Extending
middle of the pack is scattered throughout Southern, Central, and Eastern
Europe, South America, and North Africa. A slight North-South differ-
ence can be noticed, which shows that some sub-Saharan as well as
Southeast Asian countries are clustered together. Some striking evidence
we can gather from this map is that there seems to be weak colonial
Fig. 3.6 World map showing countries’ membership in clusters of trajectories of

the duration of compulsory education
90 F. Besche-Truthe
heritage discernible, if any. The United Kingdom (UK), except in combi-

nation with South Africa, has a different compulsory education policy
since 1970 than most of its former colonies. For example, India and for-
mer British colonies in sub-Saharan Africa not only differ in their trajec-
tories with one another but also with the UK. This also holds true for
other colonies of European states. Furthermore, after the breakup of the
USSR, some countries seem to follow distinctly different paths than their
former Union countries.
The goal of this chapter is not to draw conclusive or even causal state-
ments about the development of compulsory education policy. However,
what I can show is that international comparative education should
refrain from ‘easy’ and overly hasty explanations. Nation-states as diverse
as Belgium, Guatemala, and North Korea (Long and extending) show
similarity regarding their trajectories of compulsory education policy.
This could excite new ways of international comparative education
research.
Conclusion
In this chapter, I started with the observation that recent international
comparative education research has advanced at a rapid pace. Notions of
an isomorphism of national education systems overshadow the actual
analysis of different developmental paths of single elements of these sys-
tems. Past scholarship has been focused on the origins, output, or out-
come of compulsory education legislation. In contrast, I argued to take
into account the whole trajectories of education policy and use them as
the focal point of research. This recontextualization in terms of environ-
ing policy changes in time and relation to other countries yields the pos-
sibility to simultaneously answer questions on ‘what’ policy change looks
like as well as ‘when’ and ‘in which order’ this happens or does not happen.
With the help of sequence analysis tools, I demonstrated that when
looking at the duration of compulsory education from 1970 until 2020,
durations of compulsory education and their development paths show
large differences that cannot be explained at first glance by crude
classifications of economic development or cultural spheres. However, it

is possible to generally discern, that higher income countries, on average,
have longer durations of compulsory education and ‘Catholic, Spanish-
speaking’ nation-states have high durations. The latter is probably due to
a shift of norms regarding mandatory, preprimary education. It seems
that we are witnessing a new diffusion dynamic in which policy innova-
tion starts in non-Western states but transfers to the West in the future.
I set out to quantitatively cluster countries together based solely on
their actual trajectories of compulsory education law. Eight clusters have
been described, which, on the one hand, show remarkable overlap but,
on the other hand, still have large intragroup variances. However, we can
take hints from this clustering. For example, there are some regional spe-
cialties and, generally, higher income means earlier extension on average
as well as longer durations of compulsory education in general.
Furthermore, a second wave of introduction and extension of compul-
sory education seems to correlate—at least time-wise—with the increas-
ing intensity of international discourses like Education for All or the
Sustainable Development Goals, for example. While the first started at
the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien in 1990 and was
renewed in the Dakar Framework for Action in 2000, the latter are cur-
rently shaping education policies around the world since 2015.
However, these are the first intuitions and do not claim causal
relationships.
Moreover, accepting the clustering leads to imprecision when review-
ing it as set-in-stone boundaries. Similarly, to what is argued in Chaps. 1
and 2, the social reality of policy change shows overlaps that are changing
throughout time and space. The clusters observed look different from
ones built from sequences starting in 1900 and will look different when
observed in 2050.
Nonetheless, the information gathered here shows clearly the numer-
ous, different paths, even though clustering proves difficult. Trying to
discern broad trends in domestic factors is almost impossible. The precise
interplay of political ideology, global discourses, and especially regional/
cultural discourses can have an impact on trajectories. This complexity is
difficult to discern. However, with this descriptive investigation, I have
found possible avenues where scholarship might be able to place further
92 F. Besche-Truthe
focus. In my view, this should motivate researchers to take a step back

and take stock of the complexity found in the real world of education
policies. It is tedious work but should nonetheless be done in order to
understand what is really going on in a global education sphere that
shows isomorphism only in a very abstract way.
Going forward, I suggest keeping the following in mind: To actualize
complexity does not inhibit researching on a macro-level; rather, it should
motivate us to do it more often in an all-encompassing way. Different
and complex trajectories do not end in one telos but are instead open for
debates situated in different locations and different times. The complex-
ity of nation-states’ education systems should be systematically described
and analyzed before turning toward actual explanations that most prob-
ably will not yield one-size-fits-all solutions. I took a first step in that
direction. Future research should take the insights presented in this chap-
ter and expand on other constitutive parts of education systems. One
should also focus on what determinants are influential in bringing about
trajectories that unfold in a specific sequential order. Such an analysis
should involve interdependencies between countries as well as national
factors. A thorough and structured analysis could yield more insights into
the global developmental paths of education systems. Furthermore, using
this study as the starting point, new theories on the international transfer
of education system characteristics could be possible. Taking a step back
and considering the bigger picture helps in highlighting the shortcom-
ings of research that global education policy needs to address.
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right holder.
4
Does Globalization Affect
the Performance of Secondary
Education Systems? A Coevolution
Model of Multiplex Transnational
Networks and Educational Performance
Helen Seitzer and Michael Windzio
Introduction1
In today’s globalized world, interactions between countries are manifold,
where borders are fading. Globalization itself is a complex, multidimen-
sional process. The concept of globalization refers to the historical devel-
opment toward more interconnectedness between nation-states. It is also
closely tied to the differential power of nation-states within a hierarchical
1
SFB 1342.
H. Seitzer (*)

98 H. Seitzer and M. Windzio
world system. Furthermore, countries exert power to influence the global

distribution of economic capital (Wallerstein 1995). Countries became
connected due to a multitude of reasons such as economic exchange, dif-
fusion of culture, increasing trends in global migration, the international
organization of politics, new techniques of communication, and easier
access to long-distance transportation (Meyer et al. 1992; Glick Schiller
et al. 1992; Castles et al. 2014; Windzio et al. 2010).
Nonetheless, asserting that the world becomes increasingly globalized
and interconnected to the point where nation-states lose—or even should
lose—their relevance in almost all respects is oversimplifying things.
Rather than accepting this assumption, we should study the effects of
globalization within various fields of society, for instance, on the perfor-
mance of secondary education institutions. The rationale behind the
assumption of globalization affecting societal outcomes is that more
interconnectedness and exchanges between countries require similar atti-
tudes and values, which can be expressed in similar policies and institu-
tional structures. Similarity can be purposefully demonstrated by
adopting similar institutional structures to facilitate more between-
country exchanges. The participation in the Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) is an example of these converging institu-
tions. This, and the subsequent reforms in education systems, influence
educational outcomes and the performance of secondary educational
institutions.
Globalization can be driven by horizontal interdependencies between
nation-states, for example, by global trade or migration, or it can be a
result of vertical interdependencies between nation-states and interna-
tional organizations (IOs) (Dobbin et al. 2007; Obinger et al. 2013;
Kuhlmann et al. 2020). Empirical research should take up the challenge
to investigate whether horizontal interdependencies exist and if they do,
which mechanisms are driving policy diffusion in the respective field.
According to the literature, the basic explanations for diffusion are (1)
M. Windzio
SOCIUM and Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of
Social Policy”, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
4 Does Globalization Affect the Performance of Secondary… 99
learning, adoption of policies due to (2) competition, (3) imitation, or

(4) coercion (Dobbin et al. 2007; Obinger et al. 2013). Correspondingly,
in the case of education policy, competition for graduates and a hege-
monic position in reputation due to educational quality drives the diffu-
sion of education system characteristics, either causing countries to
imitate or learn.
Since the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) first published their PISA in 2000 and ranked the participating
countries according to their educational performance, existing research
has revealed considerable influence of these rankings on domestic educa-
tion policymaking (Niemann 2014; Martens et al. 2014). By publishing
these benchmarks, the OECD stimulated the above-mentioned competi-
tion among those countries that considered education an important con-
dition for their economic and social development. In the literature, this
has been described as vertical interdependence between IOs and coun-
tries participating in or observing the PISA studies. Being interconnected
within global networks in a competitive situation provides many oppor-
tunities to learn from or to imitate better-performing countries. Diffusion
by learning or imitation can be a way of coping with the intensified com-
petition. The increased performance in secondary education is ultimately
an outcome of this diffusion process.
In this study, we take a macro-quantitative approach to diffusion
through vertical and horizontal interdependencies. We focus on domestic
secondary education systems and investigate whether three subdimen-
sions of globalization affect their performance: the global exchange of
tertiary students, global migration, and global service sector trade. We
utilize relational and time-varying measures of these globalization indica-
tors. More precisely, these indicators are dynamic networks in which the
set of countries remains constant, but the ties among them change over
time. By analyzing the coevolution of these networks and countries’ per-
formance in the PISA study, we can simultaneously test the impact of
globalization on domestic secondary education systems and investigate
the impact of performance in the PISA study on global exchange pat-
terns. Our assumption is, therefore, that countries that are highly inter-
connected due to these networks are just that due to their educational
outcomes. We expect, for example, that a difference in performance might
influence service sector trade toward higher-scoring countries, which

then stimulates lower-scoring countries to reinvent their education sys-
tem to compete in the game of hegemonic education.
The exchange of persons, whether short term for educational purposes
in terms of student mobility or permanently in the form of migration
flows, ties countries together but often presupposes institutionalized con-
ditions that allow this exchange to occur in the first place. In the inter-
connected web of entities, a country’s reputation or prestige (Alderson
and Beckfield 2004) is one factor determining institutionalized exchanges.
However, it is not countries as abstract entities that form reputations
among one another but rather everyday people who hold judgments on
and prejudices against countries, thus helping to establish their reputa-
tion (Beghin and Park 2019). The question here is whether long-
established and stable interrelations, such as migration or trade flows, are
being redirected by recent changes in countries’ reputations. PISA signifi-
cantly influences the perception of a country’s educational quality
through the triennial rankings of student achievement, but this influence
does not necessarily surpass the prejudice of local customs (Waldow et al.
2014). This new threat to national legitimacy and reputation raises the
question of whether similarities and differences in PISA scores and rank-
ings influence student exchange, migration patterns, and service sector
trade flows. Are persons looking to migrate aware of a country’s reputa-
tion due to PISA rankings and, therefore, follow this pattern, or are these
exchange flows uniquely dependent on institutionalized pathways, which
are not threatened by changes in an international reputation? Moreover,
do countries adapt to the performance of countries that they are tied to
in the global network?
Theory
International relations at the country level are influenced by a multitude
of national factors, including but not limited to shared goals and stan-
dards (e.g. the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals or
human rights). According to Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory, educa-
tion adapts to accommodate the spread of capitalism (Wallerstein 1995).
However, this focus is heavily dependent on an economic perspective,

dismissing all other influences on the diffusion of education policy.
Groundbreaking in this theory, however, is the growing interdependence
of nation-states. From this perspective, international migration and
increased student exchanges may be a result and function of the spread of
capitalism. The core–periphery structure of the world described in
Wallerstein’s theory suggests that people from the ‘periphery’ are drawn
to the ‘core’ of the world system, regardless of national borders. Similarly,
capital, but also educational hegemony is distributed unequally through-
out the system with core-countries possessing not only the lion’s share in
an economic sense but also the power to influence, accept, or reject policy
suggestions from other parties such as IOs. In turn, aspects of education
systems are diffused to the periphery from the core. An extreme case of
this demonstration of educational hegemony lies in the diffusion of the
language of instruction from the colonizers to the colonies (Griffiths and
Arnove 2015). Given the fact that PISA was not only developed in a
rather central country (France) but was also initially developed for central
European countries, taken together with the criticism of PISA’s
Eurocentrism and cultural bias (Zhao 2020), it could be assumed that
these central countries would perform significantly better in the test than
more peripheral countries. Central countries in the network of student
exchange and migration would rank higher in PISA, while peripheral
countries catch up over time. Service sector trade might have the opposite
effect, as countries with lower scores most likely take on more ‘outsourced’
labor from countries with a higher rank in PISA. Wallerstein suggests
that these networks tend to converge to a maximum before the network
evolution comes to a halt. This theory, however, does not account for the
potential influence of PISA scores on the network patterns; instead, it
may suggest no influence at all.
Another theory on the homogenization of the world originated in the
‘Stanford school’ of global isomorphism. John Meyer and colleagues’
World Society Theory (Meyer et al. 1997) accounts for the homogeniza-
tion of education systems and the international alignment of goals, such
as PISA participation, along with the joint acceptance of a model of
democracy and human rights. This theory highlights the importance of
legitimacy due to the acceptance of world polity standards. The theory
does not explicitly predict an increase in global interaction as Wallerstein’s

theory suggests. It does, however, account for the creation and spread of
‘myths’ of countries’ reputations, thus allowing the potential to create a
reputation that contributes to the pull factors of migration and student
exchange. This is where PISA rankings unfold their influence: The rank-
ings inform the ‘myth’ of a country, influencing the popular perception
of the quality of public (welfare) policy through implementing the notion
of a good education system. This in turn fosters international relations
and potentially increases migration flow.
Wallerstein includes a stronger account of the core–periphery struc-
ture of migration patterns through the emphasis on commodification,
which Meyer and Ramirez’s theory does not. PISA rankings are often
associated with development, which would indicate a correlation of PISA
scores and a more central network position, meaning a greater influx of
people, which is in line with Wallerstein’s approach. Meyer’s theory would
suggest a similar association but would predict an increase in migration
inflow due to the changing popularity of a country. However, we will not
be able to disentangle the differentiation between both mechanisms in
this study. Instead, what we can test is whether there is indeed an increas-
ing influx of people, coevolving with the change in PISA scores.
Both theories could shed some light on migration patterns as well as
student mobility. They suggest that participation in PISA may influence
international relations, with Wallerstein’s theory emphasizing the eco-
nomic aspects, whereas Meyer and colleagues’ theory indicates a more
culturally driven approach. While the former suggests a correlation
between rankings and network centrality, the latter indicates a causal
effect. But, as stated before, PISA results do not only influence national
policymakers but also increase the competition and interaction between
countries when it comes to the quality of education systems (Bieber and
Martens 2011). As shown in existing research, cross-national compari-
sons, policy transfer, and exchanges between countries have been rapidly
increasing in the wake of the PISA study (Steiner-Khamsi 2014). The
public discussion of PISA scores and the naming and shaming of coun-
tries’ outcomes greatly influence countries’ reputations with other coun-
tries and their own citizens. While PISA rankings, as published by the
OECD, may influence a countries’ reputation, the cleaned PISA scores
might not necessarily confirm this effect. PISA scores are, in contrast to
the rankings, displaying the countries educational effectiveness given its
social circumstances, for example, the number of people with an immi-
grant background, the number of girls tested, the qualifications of teach-
ers, and so on. This can result in different outcomes. In support of Meyer’s
theory, we expect an effect from the rankings, as they are publicly dis-
cussed. The scores relate more to Wallerstein’s classification of core and
peripheral countries, as the educational hegemony often goes along with
this classification.
Reputations and prejudices inform interactions between citizens on an
individual level but also determine larger trade volumes, as the demand
for products from a certain country can diminish with its declining repu-
tation or be reinforced due to a positive appraisal, thus leading to the
strengthening of political interdependencies or disagreements (Maoz
2011). Adhering to similar standards in welfare politics is a prominent
determinant of political interdependencies and policy diffusion
(Robertson and Dale 2015). The participation in and results of
International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs) like PISA might be a new
way to foster international relations, as not only the participation but also
the implementation of reforms as a reaction to results are seen as legiti-
mizing instruments (Addey et al. 2017). Regarding legitimization within
a given country, a way to cope with the intensified competition can be to
gather information on the education systems of better-performing coun-
tries. The diffusion mechanisms of learning and imitation can thus help
cope with this challenge, which requires contact with other countries
based on an underlying social network.
Global trade and its increase over recent decades, combined with the
increasing importance of the service sector economy, are important
aspects of globalization (Glick Schiller et al. 1992). In contrast to the
exchange of raw material, service sector trade relies more on communica-
tion and social interaction. Particularly in highly qualified and specialized
economies, such as information technology or the knowledge economy,
trade partners mutually rely on the trade partners’ educational standards.
Moreover, countries become more attractive as destinations for global
student mobility if they are closely linked to the home country by service
sector trade, as students’ employment prospects might increase if they are
familiar with modes of communication and knowledge production in

both countries. For this reason, we expect that global student mobility
corresponds with the educational standards in the sending and receiving
countries but also with the service sector trade flows between these two
countries.
International migration is driven by various factors (Windzio 2018;
Windzio et al. 2019). These factors can be categorized as economic, eco-
logic, demographic, and political. Much like trade flows, migration flows
also follow the famous gravity model (Walsh 2011): Geographical prox-
imity, cultural and linguistic similarities, as well as historical interlinkages
determine the destinations of goods and people alike. Student exchange
follows similar patterns to migration and could even be seen as a form of
‘short-term migration’ or ‘trial migration’ since some graduates of higher
education remain in their destination country (Vögtle and Windzio 2020).
Since the sending and receiving countries’ characteristics influence
migration and student exchange patterns, we wonder whether PISA
results belong to the list of push or pull factors for international interde-
pendencies. While PISA strongly influences policymaking, does it also
inform the public to a level where rankings determine a country’s inter-
national reputation? Does PISA influence the policymaking process to
the extent that it affects international relations, and how much of that
influence trickles down to the population? Do citizens consider PISA as
an instrument to determine which country has a suitable education sys-
tem and might be a worthy destination country? Does the embeddedness
of a country in global networks influence the performance of its second-
ary education, for example, due to ‘social remittances’, learning or imita-
tion? We will address these questions by simultaneously inspecting three
networks, specifically student exchange, migration, and global service
trade; we then combine them with changing PISA rankings for
Mathematics in a network coevolution model.
Previous Research
As this chapter includes four variables of interest, the change in student
exchange patterns, the development of migration stock, global service
sector trade, and PISA rankings and scores, this section discusses multiple
aspects of previous research.
When choosing a destination country for degree-seeking student
exchange, students take a multitude of factors into account (Vögtle and
Windzio 2016). Most studies involving a network perspective utilize a
macro-level perspective. Studies show that the student exchange network
has undergone considerable changes and developed an increasingly
unequal and centralized topology. This observation hints toward an aca-
demic hegemony that is consistent with economic performance (Barnett
and Wu 1995; Shields 2013). Moreover, student exchange patterns fol-
low economic development and exchange (Barnett and Wu 1995; Shields
2013; Vögtle and Windzio 2016). In addition, it is a common approach
to consider the geographical proximity, shared borders, shared colonial
history, and similar cultural aspects such as language similarity and reli-
gious factors as determinants of student mobility (Vögtle and Windzio
2016; Barnett et al. 2016).
Some students study abroad with the prospect of staying in their des-
tination country (Peterson et al. 1984), and these ‘tentative migrants’ link
the network of student mobility to the network of global migration.
These graduates are particularly attractive in economic segments, where
they can rely on their familiarity with both countries, their country of
origin, and the country of destination. This argument might be particu-
larly important for service sector industries where young graduates often
begin their occupational careers. In general, reasons for migrating to dif-
ferent countries are similar to reasons why young students seek certifi-
cates in other countries: Economic, cultural, and social motivations are
among the top pull factors for migration (Windzio 2018). Migration for
the benefit of future children’s lives and education are potential reasons
for migration, especially for families or younger generations. In addition,
according to gravity theory (Boyle et al. 1998), geographic proximity and
contiguity play a major role in migration patterns. Moreover, a
core–periphery topology (Windzio et al. 2019) as well as a South-to-

North migration movement can be observed (Jennissen 2007).
In contrast to global student mobility, however, the general global
migration stock results from various forms of migration, for example,
labor migration, refugees, family reunification, and student mobility.
Although the migration of refugees is mostly directed toward economi-
cally well-performing countries, less developed countries also host many
refugees, such as Turkey, Colombia, Pakistan, and Uganda (https://www.
unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/). Moreover, global migration may increase
opportunities to become involved in global trade since migrants’ eco-
nomic transnational activities link sending and receiving countries
together (Glick Schiller et al. 1992).
The flow of so-called social remittances (Lacroix et al. 2016) could be
one reason why, in the long run, sending and receiving countries assimi-
late to each other with respect to the performance of their education
systems. Much like student mobility and global trade, these migration
networks provide information channels and, thereby, the conditions for
learning from and imitating other countries. The question is whether the
isomorphism of education systems is influenced by the rising numbers of
migrants, as similar education systems allow for easier integration of
migrant children into schools.
Educational performance might be crucial for service sector trade.
Some foreign students stay as ‘tentative migrants’ after graduation in
order to work in highly qualified jobs, often in the service sector or trade
related to the country of origin. Strong ties in service sector trade might
correspond with migration and student mobility but also with perfor-
mance of the education system. In contrast to industrial production, ser-
vice sector trade relates to what people do to customers, so that a similar
level of qualification and communicative capacity is required. If the aver-
age level of educational performance strongly differs between two coun-
tries, this asymmetry might affect the myriads of single economic
transactions in the service sector industry, so that countries interacting
either have similar average levels of educational performance or try to
increase their educational performance or assimilate to their partners’
performance levels.
The influence of PISA on international relations is somewhat ambigu-

ous. As stated before, the initial argument as to why participation in the
PISA study might have an effect on international relations points to legit-
imacy. According to World Society Theory, participating in PISA demon-
strates a country’s willingness to follow norms of the world society (Addey
et al. 2017). In addition, participation facilitates the acquisition of devel-
opment aid funds (Kijima 2010). However, to date, there has been no
clear empirical evidence of exactly how participation in PISA might
influence international relations. One assumption is that migration and
student exchange patterns follow changes in PISA scores and rankings, as
people looking to travel or to migrate choose countries with a good inter-
national reputation. To determine whether the PISA scores and rankings
do influence peoples’ decision-making regarding migration and exchange
destinations, we ask if these patterns of international exchange coincide
with PISA scores and rankings. In our model, we include network effects
of degree-seeking student exchange flow, migration stock, and service
sector trade flow. We also include independent variables representing the
classic approach to migration and student exchange patterns: gross
domestic product (GDP) per capita, cultural aspects such as language
and religious similarity, contiguity, and the ratification of free trade agree-
ments. In addition, we include the number of top-ranking universities in
a university ranking to represent the popular perception of the quality of
the higher education system.
Data
All data for the following analysis was collected every three years from
2006 to 2018, resulting in 5 data points. Missing observations in the
migration stock data were interpolated linearly. A total of 49 countries
and subregions were included in the sample due to their consistent par-
ticipation in PISA.2
2
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, Colombia, Czech
Republic, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Hong
Kong, Croatia, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Japan, South Korea,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Macao, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland,
In the coevolution model of networks and a related outcome measure

(see below), outcomes of influence are often called the ‘behavior’. We col-
lected data on our outcome of interest, PISA scores, and rankings, from
the original information published by the OECD. To obtain measures
most likely to influence the public’s perception of a country’s quality of
education, the OECD published rankings in Mathematics that were
derived from the original data.3 We did not adjust these rankings for
domestic factors since we were not interested in replicating the OECD’s
rankings. For reasons of simplicity and due to requirements of the models
presented below, we separated the distribution into 10 percentiles.
Additionally, we computed PISA country scores, as opposed to rankings,
by using a hierarchical linear regression model with individual and coun-
try levels from the original OECD data (Teltemann and Windzio 2019).
The final scores included in this analysis are country-level random effects,
indicating the deviation of each country’s mean PISA scores from the
overall mean in the respective year while controlling for individual,
school, and aggregated country characteristics. The conditional country
scores were adjusted for gender, immigrant background (native, first, or
second generation), the number of books at home, if the language spoken
at home was the test language, cultural resources and possessions at home,
ESCS (Economic, Social, and Cultural Status), and parental education
level, as well as the percentage of girls per school, the percentage of certi-
fied teachers, ability grouping, school size, and student–teacher ratio. The
missing values for the immigrant background for Japan in 2018 were
recreated with available information (country of birth of parents and
self ). The analysis was weighted with standardized senate weights, so
every country contributed equally to the analysis, irrespective of the year
since the country size is not relevant in this case. All five plausible values
were used. School-level variables were aggregated to percentages at the
country level to treat missing data. Just like the rankings, the scores were
split into 10 percentiles.
Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey,
Uruguay, USA
3
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/.
The service trade networks for the respective years were obtained from
the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTADstat Trade in Goods and Services 2020). The original data
provided general trade flows as continuous information rather than dis-
crete categories. Since the values for Switzerland and Liechtenstein are
combined, but Liechtenstein does not have individual trade values nor is
it part of our sample, the values were adopted for Switzerland. Trade ties
are normalized on the amount of total export of each country, describing
the importance of each receiver (alter) to the respective sender (ego) mea-
sured by the percentage of ego’s total trade going to that specific alter. We
then only included ties if the respective trade volume was above 80% of
the overall trade volume. Figure 4.1 shows the trade network in 2012.
The student mobility data was collected from the UNESCO Institute of
Statistics (UIS) (UIS 2020). The data contains the numbers of inbound
degree-seeking students by country of origin and was normalized on the
origin countries’ enrolment numbers in tertiary education (UIS and own
Fig. 4.1 Service sector trade flow in 2012. Export normalized on total export
collection). Accordingly, the exchange students then represent the per-

centage of enrolled students from ego studying in specific alteri. Much
like service trade, only the top 20% of all student flows were coded as ties
between countries. Figure 4.2 shows the student exchange flow in 2018.
We obtained the migration stock data from the United Nations Database
( 2019) and calculated the migrants as the percentage of the sending
country’s population (Windzio 2018; World Bank 2020) living in a
receiving country. Similar to the other networks, a tie was only coded if
the percentage of migrants surpassed 80% of the total migration flow.
Figure 4.3 shows the migration flow network in 2015.
All three networks are increasing in density, where the density of the
student exchange network rises from 0.163 to 0.251, the Migration net-
work from 0.180 to 0.218, and the service sector trade network from
0.142 to 0.234, with an average degree of 9.469, 9.576, and 9.624,
Fig. 4.2 Percentage of exchange students in 2018 depending on the number of

enrolled students
Fig. 4.3 Migration stock in 2015 as a percentage of ego’s population living in the
respective alter country
respectively. Despite the rising density, they are relatively stable, as the
student exchange network has Jaccard indexes between the waves around
0.7, the migration network around 0.9, and the trade network has
increasing values between 0.6 and 0.9. These values in combination with
the increasing density show that the networks are relatively stable and
rarely devolving. New ties are being built and existing ties maintained,
but the number of breaking ties is extremely low.
Further data included was collected from the Centre d’Études
Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales (CEPII) to account for
variances usually captured by a gravity model approach. Specifically, we
accounted for language similarity (lp2) (Melitz and Toubal 2012), com-
mon religion, the ratification of free trade agreements (FTA-WTO)
(Head and Mayer 2014), contiguity (shared borders or water), and for-
mer colonial ties (Mayer and Zignago 2011). The GDP per capita in
constant 2010 US Dollars was collected from the World Bank (World
Bank 2019). Furthermore, a proxy for the quality of higher education
was developed from the Shanghai Rankings,4 counting the number of
universities in the top 100 rankings each year. Regardless of the practices
that construct these rankings, the average student might still consider it
an important source in their decision process regarding the choice of the
destination country.
Methods
Recent developments in longitudinal social network analysis culminated
in stochastic actor-based models (SAOMs) of network evolution (Snijders
et al. 2010). The underlying rationale is that cross-sectional network
analysis assumes that actors are in a Nash-equilibrium regarding the costs
and benefits of their ties so that none of these actors has an incentive to
change their social relations by either establishing a new tie or dropping
an existing tie. Relaxing this unrealistic assumption requires a longitudi-
nal perspective on network evolution. A social network is a higher-level
structural outcome of actors’ individual decisions on whom they would
prefer to be linked to in this network. Actors’ basic motive behind their
network decisions is maximizing their utility. If the utility of closing tri-
ads or reciprocating an incoming tie is comparatively high, the model
assumes that actors prefer these decisions to existing alternatives, for
example, to establishing a tie that does not close an open triad. The ques-
tion in the actor-based network model is: What does it take for an actor
to establish, maintain, or dissolve a tie? SAOMs specifically assume that
actors change or maintain their ties depending on the cost of this action,
instead of assuming a relative ‘laziness’ of networks. Ties are easier to
maintain and establish if the actors have either attributes in common or
both benefit from the attribute imbalance. This perspective requires lon-
gitudinal data, especially if actor attributes change over time, as the attri-
butes’ changes might coincide or even induce changes in the network. In
the specific case of a coevolution model, not only is the network
4
http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU-Statistics-2018.html.
dependent on the previous waves’ network composition, but also on the

levels of a ‘behavior’, an additional dependent variable that in turn also
changes due to the networks’ composition.
The application of this model utilizes simulation algorithms based on
multinomial discrete choice models (Greene and Hensher 2010) of tie
creation, tie dissolution, or inactivity. Hence, it derives the utility of a
local (actor-based) network characteristic from their empirical distribu-
tion in the network. Examples of such characteristics are reciprocity, tran-
sitive triads, or homophily with respect to actor attributes. The algorithm
simulates the transition from the network at t to t+1 by simulating utility-
maximizing decisions at the actor level and thereby finds those logit coef-
ficients for the specified regression model that make this transition most
likely. Based on these so-called micro-steps, the regression equation pre-
dicts networks for the subsequent periods. If the explanatory variables
specified by the researcher do not sufficiently explain this transition, the
simulated networks will not fit well to the empirical network in the subse-
quent period.
In addition to overcoming the restrictive equilibrium assumption in
most cross-sectional network analyses, the SAOM’s longitudinal approach
allows for the disentanglement of ego’s selection process into a particular
network tie, for example, by homophily, from the influence of nodes the
ego is connected to (Steglich et al. 2010). This feature of the SAOM is
important for our analysis since we are also interested in how countries’
characteristics—in our case their performance in the PISA study—change
according to the influence of the countries they are tied to in the respec-
tive network. To do so, however, we have to control for the selection
processes into these networks: Countries either establish network ties due
to their similarity in educational performance (which we will call “PISA”
in the following), or they assimilate to the educational performance of
their alteri, or they do both. The coevolution model for selection and
influence provides a multi-equation system that can separate these
processes.
Results
In the following, we analyze the coevolution of three networks—student
exchange, migration stock, and service trade—and secondary education
performance as indicated by PISA scores. In addition, the unadjusted
PISA rankings as published by the OECD were included as ‘behavior’,
more precisely, as the countries’ characteristic that could be under the
influence of the alteri in the network. A set of additional predictors was
included which can be categorized as follows: economic (GDP per capita
in 10,000), geographic (contiguity: shared borders), cultural (language
similarity, common religion), and educational (interactions with the
‘behavior’, number of top-ranking universities in the top 100 Shanghai
Ranking). Thus, the main interest lies in detecting (a) how the networks
influence each other; (b) if the PISA rankings have an effect on the change
in network structure, as well as on the networks correlating with the PISA
rankings; (c) whether other countries that a focal country (ego) is tied to
influence ego’s education system; and (d) whether network partners influ-
ence each other in the PISA ranking and score.
Table 4.1 shows the results of four equations representing the effects
on our three networks and on the outcome of educational performance.
The first three equations show determinants of selection into network
ties, whereas the fourth equation (Behavior) shows the effects on social
influence exerted by alteri that ego is tied to. Each network equation
includes structural effects. The term “density” is a regression constant,
showing the density of the network if all explanatory variables are set to
zero. Moreover, reciprocity accounts for the propensity to reciprocate an
incoming tie, whereas the GWESP (geometrically weighted edgewise
shared partners) term accounts for transitivity (Harris 2014).
The goodness of fit statistics (not shown) demonstrate a sufficiently
good fit for behavior and outdegree distribution. Nonetheless, there are
significant deviations from the empirical indegree distribution in all three
networks, although the overall fit is acceptable. We focus our interpreta-
tion on Model 2 (M2) in Table 4.1, where we calculated educational
performance as adjusted PISA scores as opposed to PISA rankings.
Table 4.1 The coevolution of networks of global trade, migration, student mobil-
ity, and PISA performance
M1: Rankings M2: Scores
Network effects EST SE EST SE
Student exchange network
Density −1.273 0.131 *** −1.28 0.128 ***
Reciprocity 0.77 0.111 *** 0.772 0.108 ***
GWESP −0.025 0.097 −0.017 0.097
Language similarity −0.038 0.046 −0.031 0.045
Common religion −0.086 0.175 −0.057 0.174
Contiguity 0.392 0.187 * 0.43 0.194 *
PISA alter 0.009 0.018 0.021 0.056
PISA ego − − −0.106 0.054 *
PISA similarity 0.202 0.175 0.032 0.309
GDP alter −0.03 0.022 −0.027 0.02
No. of top 100 univ. alter −0.023 0.007 *** −0.023 0.007 ***
Crprod migration 0.419 0.098 *** 0.413 0.104 ***
Crprod reciprocity with migration 0.223 0.108 * 0.211 0.112 +
Crprod trade 1.433 0.11 *** 1.435 0.113 ***
Crprod reciprocity with trade 0.194 0.135 0.202 0.131
Migration stock network
Density −0.56 0.321 + −0.52 0.369
Reciprocity 0.923 0.257 *** 0.922 0.264 ***
GWESP 0.193 0.223 0.202 0.244
Language similarity 0.183 0.107 + 0.191 0.108 +
Common religion −0.5 0.464 −0.499 0.456
Contiguity −0.735 0.554 −0.812 0.564
PISA alter −0.045 0.041 0.07 0.119
PISA ego − − 0.241 0.268
PISA similarity −0.134 0.411 −0.699 0.87
GDP alter −0.113 0.057 * −0.159 0.055 **
Crprod stud 0.534 0.321 + 0.525 0.327
Crprod reciprocity with stud 0.095 0.352 0.106 0.342
Crprod trade 0.7 0.312 * 0.675 0.314 *
Crprod reciprocity with trade −0.148 0.331 −0.154 0.35
Service sector trade network
Density −1.11 0.143 *** −1.113 0.147 ***
Reciprocity 0.948 0.133 *** 0.943 0.122 ***
GWESP −0.196 0.106 + −0.187 0.112 +
Contiguity −0.236 0.249 −0.246 0.255
Colony −0.32 0.277 −0.334 0.286
FTA-WTO reciprocity 0.227 0.191 0.198 0.191
PISA alter 0.049 0.019 * 0.113 0.057 *
(continued)
Table 4.1 (continued)
M1: Rankings M2: Scores

Network effects EST SE EST SE
PISA ego − − 0.068 0.065
PISA similarity −0.126 0.19 −0.586 0.336 +
GDP alter −0.059 0.025 * −0.045 0.022 *
Crprod stud 1.636 0.129 *** 1.649 0.132 ***
Crprod reciprocity with stud 0.324 0.149 * 0.32 0.151 *
Crprod migration 1.04 0.113 *** 1.003 0.113 ***
Crprod reciprocity with migration −0.359 0.129 ** −0.344 0.122 **
Behavior: Educational
performance
PISA linear shape −0.091 0.141 0.008 0.162
PISA quadratic shape −0.127 0.155 −0.829 0.503 +
PISA average sim. (stud) 1.669 7.607 4.418 8.293
PISA average sim. (migr.) −12.264 12.313 −5.528 9.758
PISA average sim. (trade) −0.789 7.274 −4.627 8.589
Effect from GDP 0.03 0.049 0.174 0.074 *
All convergence t ratios < 0.07 < 0.09.
Overall max. Convergence ratio 0.21 0.29
N = 49 countries, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018
Note: +p < 0.1; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
Source: WeSIS data base, own computation
In M2 from Table 4.1, we can see that the student exchange network
depends not only on reciprocity but also on spatial proximity, measured
here as contiguity. If two countries share a border, the log odds of observ-
ing a tie in the student mobility network increase by 0.43*. We find a
significantly negative effect of ego’s scores on ties in the student exchange
network, which probably indicates that students in high-performing
countries prefer to study in their home country. In contrast to our expec-
tation, there is a negative effect of the number of high-ranking universi-
ties. This is a rather surprising result, as one would expect more students
to aspire to go to countries hosting these universities. This result raises the
question whether countries with many high-performing universities are
open to students from all over the world or whether the incoming stu-
dent population in these countries is highly selective and limited to just a
few sending countries. Yet, due to a higher influx of foreign students,
these universities might impose a more challenging selection process for
admission and thereby restrict the inflow. The debate on restrictions
imposed on the admission of high-performing Asian applicants by

Harvard University points in this direction: “Asians are demographically
overrepresented minorities, but they are underrepresented relative to the
applicant pool” (Gersen 2017).
Moreover, we find a significantly positive effect of the migration stock
network on the student exchange network (0.413***): Students prefer to
go to countries where their origin country has already established ties in
the global migration network. In addition, there is an effect of recipro-
cated ties in the migration network on the student exchange network, but
it is significant only at the 10% level (0.211+). Furthermore, the student
exchange network depends on the service sector trade network since there
is a positive effect of this network on student exchange (1.435***). Aside
from that, we cannot observe any significant determinants of ties in this
network. There are neither ego nor alter effects of the PISA scores, nor do
we find homophily with respect to the PISA scores: The effect of selection
into these networks due to PISA similarity is not significant.
In the next equation, the global migration stock network is the outcome
of interest. This network leans toward reciprocity and shows a (margin-
ally significant) positive effect of language similarity. It also displays a
negative effect of alter’s GDP, which is a rather unexpected result. This
might originate from the limitation of our dataset, namely, that it is based
on 49 economically developed countries that participated in the PISA
study. However, there is a significantly positive effect of service sector
trade. Patterns of global migration do follow linkages in the increasingly
globalized network of service sector trade.
Likewise, the trade network tends to produce reciprocating ties, but
here we see a positive effect of ‘PISA alter’, which means that service sec-
tor trade ties are directed toward countries with higher PISA scores (and
rankings in M1) (0.113*). A striking result, however, is the negative coef-
ficient of ‘GDP alter’, indicating that the better another country per-
forms economically, the lower the propensity for ego to establish a tie in
the trade network. Yet, we should keep in mind that this effect is condi-
tional on the interdependency among our three networks: Here we find
robust significant effects of student mobility ties on service sector ties
(1.649***) as well as on ties in the migration stock network (0.113***).
While there is an additional effect of reciprocated ties in the student
network (0.32*), reciprocity in the migration network tends to reduce

the main effect of nonreciprocated ties in the migration network
(−0.344**). Consequently, these three networks are highly interrelated.
The positive effect of service trade indicates that student exchange, albeit
partly dependent on the choice of the traveling individual, might follow
already institutionalized patterns of exchange. Accordingly, migration
follows the service trade patterns as well, although with a noticeably
smaller effect. The opposite is also true, with student exchanges and
migration patterns strongly influencing the service trade flow as well.
We regard educational performance as the outcome in the last equa-
tion (Behavior). “Linear shape” and “quadratic shape” are important to
control for simultaneous growth processes in the overall population.
However, according to our results, neither PISA rankings nor PISA scores
are influenced by the alteri in the network. For each network, we esti-
mated the effect of average similarity. A positive effect would indicate
that ego becomes similar to the average PISA ranking or score of those
countries that ego is connected with. We conclude from these results that
national systems of secondary education might be exposed to top-down
influence exerted by international organizations. Even though countries
might adapt their own policies due to PISA results, their scores do not
converge toward other countries that they are tied to in global networks
with respect to the actual performance of the education systems.
Conclusion
In this study, we analyzed globalization from the vantage point of domes-
tic secondary education systems and their performance. We measured
globalization by networks of student exchange, general migration stock,
and service sector trade. In so doing, we tried to separate the effects of
educational performance on selection into the respective network ties
from the influence of these ties on educational performance. We expected
that countries connected in these networks become similar in PISA scores
and rankings. The starting point of our study was the idea that globaliza-
tion affects national institutions, in our case education systems, which
then results in a change in the performance of secondary education as
measured by PISA scores and rankings.
Following the literature on globalization, we regarded these networks

as channels of influence. The benchmarking of education systems pro-
vided by the PISA study intensified competition and increased the pres-
sure on national policymakers. If imitation of or learning from other
countries are ways of coping with this competition, the underlying social
networks can provide information on more successful countries. Indeed,
if researchers argue that countries increasingly influence each other due
to globalization, they must specify the specific forms of social interaction
between countries as conditions of influence. Our focus on these net-
works assumes horizontal interdependencies, that is, we regard countries
as equal ‘peers’ that deliberately establish contact among each other. Of
course, the outcome of this network formation process is not an equal
distribution of network ties but a highly structured topology. In many
cases, just a few countries are at the core of the respective network and
have an extraordinarily high number of incoming and outgoing ties
(Windzio et al. 2019).
According to our empirical results, however, there is neither a consid-
erable selection of network ties according to PISA scores or rankings, nor
any indication of social influence. Thus, we conclude that the perfor-
mance of domestic systems of secondary education does not depend on
their embeddedness in global networks. This does not mean, however,
that education systems themselves were not responsive to the influence of
globalization. Some countries responded quite sensitively. They quickly
implemented reforms when they found themselves with rankings that
were far below their expectations (Martens et al. 2014). Yet, simply
reforming educational institutions and doing so in order to increase their
performance are two very different matters. In the end, the results of our
study are rather pessimistic about the effects of globalization on the actual
performance of secondary education systems. Perhaps, in some cases,
countries’ reforms are implemented to gain legitimacy so that the imple-
mentation is more of a performative act (Steiner-Khamsi 2012) and
‘myth and ceremony’ (Meyer and Rowan 1977). In so doing, countries
gain legitimacy as well as better access to resources from the environment.
As we know from sociological neo-institutionalism, this does not mean
that the performance of the organization’s technical core, which generates
levels of educational performance in our case, is improved as well.
Contrariwise, organizations often establish buffer zones that regulate

transactions with the (institutionalized) environments but at the same
time protect and conserve their technical core (Thompson 2004).
In this chapter, a potential causal effect between PISA rankings and
migration or student mobility patterns cannot be established. It is possi-
ble that the real-time lag between the reputation change of a country and
its effect on individual decisions regarding migration destinations is not
covered in our data.
Additionally, globalization in the field of secondary education is per-
haps not driven by horizontal interdependencies but by top-down influ-
ence exerted by IOs, as shown in previous research. If so, then the global
diffusion of the ‘best ways to educate’ will not be driven by bottom-up
evolutionary processes of tie creation or by tie dissolution in networks
between countries but by the focused and ongoing activities of IOs.
To conclude our answers to the questions explored in this chapter, we
can confidently say that migration, student exchange, and service sector
trade are highly interrelated; however, these interrelations do not depend
on nor correlate with PISA rankings or scores. This finding supports both
Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory—since Wallerstein emphasizes the
interdependencies of countries, which proved to be stable in this analy-
sis—and Meyer and colleagues’ World Society Theory—which empha-
sizes the influence of IOs over horizontal influences. Meyer and colleagues
not only demonstrate the influence of world society but also emphasize
the additional effect of vertical interdependences such as IO pressure as a
reason for structural isomorphism. Wallerstein, on the other hand,
emphasizes the relative stability of international interdependencies like
trade and migration, an effect that we could observe here as well.
While vertical interdependencies might influence national politics, we
cannot observe horizontal interdependencies influencing the outcomes,
which in our case is the performance of secondary education. Vertical
interdependencies, such as pressure and influences from IOs, here in the
form of PISA rankings, may affect policymakers but do not seem to affect
the education system’s performance to the same extent. Vice versa, we
cannot confirm whether education systems’ outcomes converge toward
an isomorphic ‘PISA-friendly’ format, due to the influences of horizontal

interdependencies such as increasing migration patterns or student
mobility.
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right holder.
5
International Organizations
in Education: New Takes on Old
Paradigms
Dennis Niemann
Introduction1
The diffusion of education policies is a central topic in this volume. As
outlined in the introduction by Windzio and Martens (Chap. 1), not
only do states tend to orient their education systems toward global mod-
els, accepted standards, and best practices but also the international com-
munity emulates overall trends. Transnational and international actors
play an increasingly important role in shaping global models of educa-
tion. The way in which education is ideologically framed on the
1
SFB 1342.
D. Niemann (*)

128 D. Niemann
international level could have important consequences for domestic edu-

cation systems, since national education reforms are heavily influenced
by international developments and policy recommendations stemming
from international actors (see Martens et al. 2010). Within a world soci-
ety, no state is an isolated island (Meyer et al. 1997). As part of a global-
ized educational subsystem, states are encouraged to respond to initiatives
from the international level and act in accordance with the accepted or
appropriate behavior. This also means that internationally defined and
disseminated standards provide templates for organizing domestic educa-
tion reforms.
Certain international organizations (IOs)—understood and used
interchangeably with the term “intergovernmental organizations”
(IGOs)—became central players in the global discourse on education
(Niemann and Martens 2021). IOs, therefore, exceed the role of mere
instruments for powerful states to use in the pursuit of their national
interests and are more than just state-controlled arenas for multilateral
coordination and cooperation. IOs are depicted as independent policy
entrepreneurs and their agency in education policy stems from their sta-
tus as legitimate, impartial, and expert entities (Martens and Niemann
2013). This actor-like status also exhibits IOs’ own possible interests and
preferences regarding policies, which neither necessarily reflect the inter-
ests and preferences of their member states nor do they reflect the IO’s
original mandate. IOs are able to make their own decisions regardless of
the wishes and virtues of their members. Generally, IOs can be consid-
ered autonomous actors if their actions and influence are not fully con-
trolled by their member countries (Hasenclever and Mayer 2007).
Understanding IOs as complex bureaucracies provides additional expla-
nations as to why they could develop a life of their own and become
policy entrepreneurs (Barnett and Finnemore 2004). This role of IOs
makes them vital actors in shaping global education policies and grants
them leverage in defining what constitutes proper education policy
measures.
In sum, IOs can be independent actors in the field of education and
can hold their own ideas about which policy goals should be pursued.
With this idea-driven agency in mind, it can be assumed that IOs will be
interested in disseminating their policies and influence the behavior of
5 International Organizations in Education: New Takes on Old… 129
others (be it of states, substate departments, individuals, or other interna-

tional institutions). This is closely linked to a soft governance approach
whereby IOs refer to their moral authority and legitimacy. In addition,
ideas are not universally accepted and different interpretations regarding
a certain topic may compete with one another. Ideas regarding education
can be rooted in different traditions, historical configurations, economic
paradigms, or cultural spheres (see Chap. 1). For instance, one traditional
idea regarding the purpose of education in Western Europe was that
national identity could be fostered by teaching a common national his-
tory, which was then contrasted with those of other European neigh-
bor states.
Ideas are also embedded in IOs. In establishing a set of ideas that con-
stitute a leitmotif in terms of certain policies, complex organizational
entities like IOs are influenced by different endogenous and exogenous
factors. These factors include member state composition, staff, global
developments, disruptive external shocks, and the like. Since the popula-
tion of IOs is by no means homogeneous and given that IOs do not share
the same institutional background, they are also not expected to hold the
same ideas about education. Considering that there are several IOs active
in the field of education—Niemann and Martens (2021) identified thirty
education IOs as of 2018—and given that there is more than one idea as
to what constitutes the most effective and appropriate education policy,
it is inevitable that these IOs also have various and (sometimes) compet-
ing ideas. Consequently, they may compete with one another for influ-
ence, legitimacy, and ultimately for political success.
In this chapter, I trace the leitmotifs as defined in the introduction to
this volume of four globally operating education IOs over time and dem-
onstrate how they interpret the purpose of education. I argue that during
the first phase, which lasted until the late 1990s, the international educa-
tion landscape was characterized by competition between major IOs
embracing antipodal leitmotifs regarding the purpose of education.
However, in a more recent phase, we can witness more of a cooperative,
comprehensive approach; IOs involved in the field of education have
started to take a more integrative, ideational approach whereby coopera-
tion on educational projects or joint positions has intensified. Looking at
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable
130 D. Niemann
Development Goals (SDGs), we can see that these meta-developments

were central drivers of ideational integration. Both global roadmaps for
development emphasized the importance of a holistic view on develop-
ment processes. In addition, with increased focus on evidence-based poli-
cies and empirically driven assessments of education, the different IOs
pursued an integrative approach toward education policy in terms of ide-
ational framing, whereby fundamental worldviews became less important
in framing the purpose of education.
This chapter is organized as follows: First, I elaborate on the impor-
tance of ideas in education and highlight the different leitmotifs regard-
ing the purpose of education as outlined in the introduction to this
volume, that is, a utilitarian economic interpretation versus a humanistic
citizenship view of education (Chap. 1); I also discuss how this affects
globally operating IOs. Secondly, I analyze how four globally active edu-
cation IOs—the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the
International Labour Organization (ILO)—ideationally frame education
purposes over time and demonstrate how this was linked to program-
matic actions. Here, I also describe how the IOs competed at certain
times and why some IOs were perceived as more dominant in the realm
of international education policy. By elaborating on the pattern of coop-
eration and contestation between IOs, I finally conclude that nowadays
they tend to cooperate and coordinate. Also, the IOs apply a more inte-
grative and ideational approach by incorporating both utilitarian and
humanistic leitmotifs.
he Development of Education Ideas

T
Within IOs
A necessary condition for IOs to become influential (soft) governance
actors includes their ability to formulate and disseminate their own edu-
cation policies. In order to do so, they need to have defined concepts of
desired policy outcomes and specify what the purpose of education
should be. Whether something is seen as desirable is heavily influenced

by ideas. And the proliferation of ideas could contribute to changes (or
stability) in policy-making. Ideas shape policy institutions and, in turn,
ideas are also shaped by them.
Since almost all IOs must rely on their capacity as policy advisors and
opinion leaders, one key element of IO influence is the role and dissemi-
nation of ideas. Following Béland and Cox’s definition, ideas are per-
ceived as causal beliefs that “provide guides for action [and help] to think
about ways to address problems [and] posit causal relations that guide
people’s decisions and preferences” (Béland and Cox 2011, 4). Ideas are
modifiers that shape policy discourse and can influence policy outcomes.
This renders ideas as cognitive frameworks for interpreting causal rela-
tionships between problems and appropriate solution strategies (Goldstein
and Keohane 1993). How agents act in the world is strongly determined
by how they perceive their environment through ideational prisms.
Furthermore, the perceptions of the actors’ environments are neither
stable nor fixed, as the interests of actors can only be seen as given or fixed
in a world where information about cause and effect is perfectly accessi-
ble. If information is imperfect, the choices of action or behavior are
always speculative to some degree. By acknowledging that information is
always imperfect, actors make decisions based on uncertainty. Here, ideas
come into play since ideas shape actors’ preferences (Blyth 2003, 697).
Ideas are particularly important governance instruments for IOs. Their
power stems from their capacity to define and interpret the issues at stake.
IOs shape how the social world is constituted, and they also set the agenda
for acting in this environment (Barnett and Finnemore 2004). Basically,
IOs acquire ideas when they institutionalize and cultivate them within
their organizational environment, but they also disseminate ideas, doing
so through diverse channels such as reports, recommendations, declara-
tions, symposia, and so forth. In consequence, an IO aligns its program-
matic activities according to its (set of ) ideas.
Taken together, the perception of the purpose of education is central
in assessing IOs’ education ideas. In short, a polarity of ideas with regard
to the purpose of education can be identified between two general leit-
motifs (see Niemann and Martens 2021). As outlined in the introduction
to this volume, the goal of education can first be framed from a utilitarian
132 D. Niemann
perspective, which emphasizes the positive economic effects of invest-

ment in education. In this regard, education substantially contributes to
the formation of human capital. Secondly, education ideas can also be
approached from a humanistic citizenship leitmotif, which is rooted in a
social liberal tradition. From this perspective, education is essential to
modern societies as it establishes or maintains the political and social
integration of a society (Nagel et al. 2010). Because both leitmotifs are at
opposite poles of a continuum, they resemble ideal types. In addition,
they are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Subsequently,
actors like IOs blend both perspectives into one ideational framework;
however, one leitmotif usually dominates and is prioritized over the other.
Nagel et al. (2010) have also demonstrated that both interpretations can
either be applied to the individual or the collective level.
IOs’ fundamental ideas regarding education are assumed to be reflected
in what they publish: position papers, policy recommendations, declara-
tions, detailed policy analyses, and the like. Hence, in this study the
utterance of ideas is conceptualized as causal statements of IOs in a dis-
course on the purpose of education. By analyzing publications of the
World Bank, the OECD, UNESCO, and the ILO from different time
periods with regard to the education ideas as outlined in the introduction
to this volume, I assessed how these four global IOs framed the purpose
of education over time. IO documents were analyzed and coded accord-
ing to the education ideas that were put forward. The selection only
included documents that resemble major policy outputs of the IO, like
mission statements, overall programmatic outlines, and principal policy
guidelines in education. Information in the text was categorized accord-
ing to predefined sets of codes derived from theory (Mayring 2003). This
means that statements in documents were interpreted pursuant to theo-
retical categories of the relevant research variables, that is, education
ideas. In addition, expert interviews with representatives of IOs were con-
ducted to identify the predominant education leitmotif that supplements
the findings in the documents. In using this triangulation approach, the
weaknesses of document analysis are alleviated by the additional informa-
tion collected through expert interviews and vice versa.
According to the differentiation of leitmotifs, we expect IOs with a
primarily economic purpose to promote a human capital approach in
education with a focus on the economic utility of education for personal

development as well as national growth, whereas IOs with a general rights
approach emphasize the humanistic values of education for both the
individual as well as the collective level.
nalyzing the Evolution of IOs’

A
Education Ideas
In this chapter, the global discourse on education purposes is analyzed.
Hence, only IOs that operate worldwide were selected to have their ide-
ational take on education analyzed. Unlike regional IOs, whose educa-
tion programs are strongly influenced by the characteristics and
idiosyncrasies of the respective region (see Chap. 7), it is expected that
globally operating IOs also claim global validity for their program and
ideas. Hence, distinctive “cultural spheres” (Chap. 1) are not a decisive
factor for analyzing the education ideas of global IOs.
Of the population of thirty education IOs, six IOs operate on the
global level: UNESCO, the ILO, the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), the World Bank, the OECD,2 and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (Niemann and Martens 2021).
With the exception of the OECD, all IOs are part of the United Nations
system, for example, as specialized agencies. The six global education IOs
can be distinguished according to their basic mandates and other such
characteristics that are assumed to have consequences on the
conceptualization of education ideas and how education policies are
framed. While the three UN-IOs and the ILO focus on specific policy
areas (education, refugees, children, and labor rights), the World Bank
and the OECD focus on economic policy. Compared to other types of
IOs that initially did not deal with education, economic IOs were late-
comers but constantly expanded their activities in the field of education
2
Clearly, the OECD is an IO with restricted membership (economically developed democracies)
and hence the classification of the OECD as a “global” IO can be challenged. However, in educa-
tion, the OECD’s scope and influence in terms of its education activities extends well beyond its
member states. The IO provides services for any state that is interested in joining the OECD’s
education program (Niemann and Martens 2021).
134 D. Niemann
(Niemann et al. 2021, forthcoming). From the sample of analyzed IOs,

the general trend of economic IOs becoming involved with education
topics is reflected in the World Bank and the OECD. In this chapter,
UNESCO, the ILO, the World Bank, and the OECD are analyzed with
regard to their ideational framing of the purpose of education.
The development of the education ideas of the four IOs is described
against their historical background. It is shown that IOs’ idea portfolios
are not static, rather they are dynamic and influenced by both endoge-
nous and exogenous factors. However, the core of each IO’s view on edu-
cation purpose remains stable over time. It can be observed that while the
nucleus of education leitmotifs remained constant over time, other ide-
ational layers were added to the portfolio. Today, all four IOs feature a
relatively holistic set of education ideas.
he World Bank: Development Assistance

T
from the ‘Knowledge Bank’
Over time, the World Bank3 has become heavily invested in education,
even developing its own programs to promote its vision for appropriate
education policies. In short, as an independent specialized agency of the
UN, the Bank transformed from a development aid agency to an active
policy advisor that produces and disseminates knowledge; it also demon-
strates best practice examples in the field of education. This takes place
against the ideational background of viewing education as a means to
fight poverty and boost human capital, productivity, and capacities for
self-development. While the Bank’s concrete foci of development policies
in education varied over time, the principal mission of the Bank remained
constant: to provide development aid in order to reduce poverty and fos-
ter human development. Like any other organization, the World Bank
and its education program is also shaped by intra-organizational frictions
3
The World Bank Group consists of five sub-organizations (International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Development
Association (IDA), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), International Centre for
Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)). “World Bank” refers to the IBRD and IDA. In edu-
cation, the IBRD and IDA are the most relevant institutions, but the IFC is also incorporated,
especially when it comes to involving the private sector in education funding operations.
and diverging preferences among different subdepartments (Fontdevila

and Verger 2020). However, the Bank’s main publications outlined a
coherent discursive approach in education, and its education leitmotif
can be characterized alongside the cornerstones that revolve around a
utilitarian understanding of education. This understanding of education
developed against the historical background of the Bank, where it was
both weakened and reinforced at different stages.
In a first phase spanning from the IO’s inception to the late 1960s, the
Bank conceptualized education as something strictly functional for devel-
opment and poverty reduction. It exclusively focused on vocational train-
ing and did not view general (nonvocational) education as an important
instrument for achieving its aims in development assistance. In October
1963, the first series of operational directives for the Bank’s education
approach were launched, which aimed at investing in creating manpower
and filling the gap of missing technicians and engineers to operate mod-
ern machinery (Heyneman 2003). In fact, the Bank’s very first education
loan was in 1963 to Tunisia for a program in vocational training (World
Bank 1999, 23). The economic-leaning idea had already become institu-
tionalized at the early stage of its education program. By addressing the
engineering problem, the generation of human capital was prioritized.
However, the ideational framing of the World Bank regarding education
in the 1960s rested on the assumption that education does not directly
contribute to a state’s overall development nor to poverty reduction;
instead, it was seen as a necessary condition for facilitating the on-site
operation of direct development aid projects.
The Bank’s education concepts and activities were substantially broad-
ened at the end of the 1960s under the presidency of Robert McNamara
(in office 1968–1981). By acknowledging education and other social
policies as contributing to the economic development of states, the Bank
also altered its lending strategy and operational activities by improving
the productive capacities of the poor (Mundy and Verger 2015). The new
framing of education in this phase established the Bank’s fundamental
idea that improvements in education directly translate into economic
well-being and overall societal improvements. In the 1970s and 1980s,
the idea of enabling countries to help themselves became prevalent. The
focus of the Bank’s education program was moved to early childhood
136 D. Niemann
education and basic education because these were the areas believed to be
particularly relevant for laying the foundations for sustainable economic
development (Zapp 2017). Accordingly, the organizational infrastructure
within the World Bank was established to fund education projects beyond
vocational education, where education research was upgraded (Heyneman
and Lee 2016, 9).
By the early 1980s, the predominantly neoliberal architecture was also
implemented in the Bank’s education program and shaped how the pur-
pose of education was framed. By almost exclusively focusing on the
development of human capital for enabling economic growth, other
views on education were sidelined in this period. The Washington
Consensus was of particular importance in framing the Bank’s education
policy agenda of utilitarianism: a reduction in public sector spending, the
liberalization of markets and privatization of public enterprises, and a
focus on the “rates of return” of education (Mundy and Verger 2015).
From the mid-1980s, a shift toward lending for elementary-level educa-
tion projects took place within the Bank’s strategy, though still from a
perspective of investment (Mundy 2010, 339).
The legitimacy of the World Bank and its work in education came
under pressure in the late 1980s to mid-1990s due to the identification
of undesired outcomes resulting from the implementation of neoliberal
policies (Bonal and Tarabini-Castellani 2009). The neoliberal paradigm
was shaken and challenged. Despite this, the Bank’s education ideas were
still in line with neoclassical economic thinking when a Post-Washington
Consensus began to emerge in the 1990s (Mundy and Verger 2015, 13),
though a broader understanding of development had emerged within the
Bank so that deficiencies in education, health, and other areas were
acknowledged (Vetterlein 2012, 40). The Bank also began to cooperate
with UNESCO and UNICEF, which ultimately led to the 1990
Education for All Conference.
Under the presidency of James D. Wolfensohn (1995–2005), the
World Bank was redesigned as the “Knowledge Bank”. An evidence-
based focus on policies was established whereby the Bank aimed at pro-
viding advice to governments based on empirical findings. Accordingly,
the Bank restructured its internal management and operational portfolio;
in addition, it heavily invested in research, particularly in the field of
education, and became a major generator of empirical data and analyses

(Zapp 2017). The IO sought to become a neutral policy advisor so that it
could guide decision-making in education through knowledge produc-
tion and identification of best practices. Still, utility considerations and
the economic development perspective were paramount in education
since the economic perspective on education outcomes was dominant in
analyzing education policies (see World Bank 1999). The reorientation of
the Bank also created new opportunities for joint efforts with other IOs.
For instance, the “Knowledge Turn” was followed by the Global
Knowledge Conference in 1997, where the Bank brought together par-
ticipants from all over the world and linked them all to global communi-
cation (Zapp 2017, 4).
This knowledge-centered approach of the World Bank was strength-
ened in the mid-2000s when emphasis was placed on the systematic
research of education performance. In addition, the World Bank linked
various educational studies, which included national, regional, and inter-
national research. The dialogue with recipient states intensified and the
Bank introduced a holistic systematic approach; the IO took a closer look
at the peculiarities of individual developing countries or regions and
increasingly allowed for different approaches in developing education
policies. Accordingly, the World Bank currently depicts itself as the
“Solution Bank”.
For the World Bank, education became central to the development
agenda. The principal aim of the Bank in education has been to “help
developing countries reform and expand their educational systems in
such a way that the latter may contribute more fully to economic devel-
opment” (World Bank 1974, i). Although the Bank currently emphasizes
education as a human right (World Bank 1999, Interviews World Bank
A, C 2018) and recognizes the limits of the market model for education
(Robertson 2012, 198), the purpose of education in the Bank’s discourse
asserts an economistic leitmotif, which brings the utility of education to
the fore. The World Bank’s Education Strategy 2020 of 2011 emphasizes
education as a basic human right but the strategy still falls under an eco-
nomic paradigm in that it promotes the global standardization of curri-
cula, private–public education partnerships for designing and conducting
education projects, and the decentralization of national education
138 D. Niemann
systems (Enns 2015). In the view of the Bank, education affects how well
individuals, communities, and nations fare. Countries need more highly
educated and skilled populations. Moreover, individuals need more skills
to become more productive, to be able to compete, and to thrive (World
Bank 1999, 5). The level of acquired “skills in a workforce […] predicts
economic growth rates of a states” (World Bank 2011, 3) and learning is
essential for human capital development (World Bank 2018).
In conclusion, the utilitarian-driven leitmotif regarding the purpose of
education was always central to the Bank’s education discourse: educa-
tion should serve the purpose of fostering the economic development of
states and societies. However, the notions have changed from viewing
education as instrumental for training technicians, to a strict neoliberal
human capital approach in the 1980s, to the rather holistic and evidence-
based understanding of education nowadays, which emphasizes the posi-
tive effects that high-quality education can have on both economic and
social developments. The economic core of the Bank’s education belief
system became supplemented with other more holistic views on educa-
tion. Alternative ideational concepts of education were acknowledged
but eclipsed by the paramount significance of the economic view on edu-
cation. While the World Bank’s Education Strategy 2020 recognizes the
limits of the market model for education development and ostensibly
states that education is a human right (World Bank 2011), it still reflects
an economic paradigm in education and basically promotes the global
standardization of curricula, private–public education partnerships for
designing and conducting education projects, and the decentralization of
national education systems.
he OECD: A Forum for Reconstruction Became

T
a Trendsetter in Global Education
A similar pattern to the World Bank can be identified when examining

the education ideas of the OECD. Initially, the OECD was perceived as
the “economic counterpart to NATO” in that it provided channels for its
member states to consult and coordinate in order to achieve economic
prosperity (Martens and Jakobi 2010, 3). Like the World Bank, the
OECD was created without a formal mandate in education. Over the

course of its existence, however, the IO successively extended its thematic
scope to issues of education. I show that the OECD framed education as
a fundamental precondition for prosperity in individuals as well as in
national economies. While the OECD is also an IO with a background
in economic policies, it does not have the same explicit developmental
focus as the World Bank.
Today, the OECD is widely considered one of the most influential
education IOs. This is surprising because the OECD lacks any legislative
teeth (Istance 1996, 95) and never planned to be an IO that provided
factual development assistance to its members. Instead, it had only
planned to be one that provided a forum to enable policy cooperation
and discourse among states (Wolfe 2008, 208). Being an IO that exclu-
sively relies on soft governance techniques, the OECD became an influ-
ential “knowledge broker” in education (Niemann and Martens 2018) by
disseminating its ideas on what a desired outcome of education is and
how national education systems should be organized. The Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized large-scale
assessment of education outcomes, was the main carrier of the OECD’s
education ideas and served as a powerful influence on states’ policy-
making. Despite the prominence of PISA within the OECD’s education
branch, the IO also covers topics that go beyond primary or secondary
education and focuses extensively on issues related to higher education or
vocational training (Seitzer et al. 2021). Although an IO with restricted
membership rules, the OECD claims global validity through PISA that
determines the best practices in education worldwide, and influences
education reform processes that did not even participate in the PISA
study (Niemann and Martens 2018). This process takes place by ide-
ationally linking education improvements to economic advancements.
The history of the OECD’s activities in education sheds analytical light
on the evolution of this view.
In its early years (1948–1960),4 when the topic of education was not
directly on the IO’s agenda, the OECD’s endeavors reflected the funda-
mental task of improving its member states’ scientific and commercial
4
At this time, the OECD was the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).
140 D. Niemann
performances in the face of pressing challenges at that time, for example,

the reconstruction of Europe after WWII, a need for economic stabiliza-
tion, and an increasingly tense confrontation with the Soviet Union
(Woodward 2009; Tröhler 2014). The founding treaty of the OECD set
the tone that “economic strength and prosperity are essential for … the
preservation of individual liberty and the increase of general well-being”
(OECD 1960). Accordingly, the OECD’s persistent mantra can be sum-
marized as follows: if the economic situation improves, the social situa-
tion is assumed to also improve.
This view is also continuously reflected in the OECD’s education
work. At the beginning, from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s and at
the height of the leading paradigm of Keynesianism, the OECD addressed
education in the context of scientific advancement. Over time, the
emphasis of the OECD’s education perspective progressively shifted
toward social equity objectives and became closely linked to issues related
to the labor market (Papadopoulos 1996). In consonance with the core
tenet of Keynesianism, the OECD advocated increased state intervention
in multiple policy areas (Armingeon 2004). This principle was also
applied to education due to the assumption that stronger state interven-
tion and centralization was beneficial for the overall outcome. With the
establishment of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation
(CERI) in 1968 and the Education Committee in 1970, education pol-
icy was more formally institutionalized within the OECD and under-
scored the relevancy of education topics for the IO (Martens and Wolf
2006). In this period, the education perspective of the OECD was slightly
decoupled from the overarching agenda of economic growth, and educa-
tion developed into a more emancipated, self-contained issue
within the IO.
In the mid-1970s, the OECD again turned its attention to education
as an essential generator of economic growth (Rubenson 2008). In this
phase, the social and equity components of education policy “receded to
the background, giving way to economic concerns” (Papadopoulos 2006,
25). Eventually, this topical turning point gave rise to a reinterpretation
of education and the economic perspective returned. This perspective was
considerably strengthened in the 1980s, when the OECD’s education
initiatives were increasingly fueled by neoliberal interpretations. The
OECD focused on “how to adjust education to changing economic

requirements in the context of stagnating budgets” (Mundy 2007, 28)
and moved to a neoclassical supply-side orientation (Sellar and Lingard
2014). Eventually, social and equity concerns were dominated by utility
considerations.
Similar to other IOs (e.g. the ILO—see below), the end of the Cold
War was a decisive watershed for the OECD. At the dawn of a new era,
the IO looked somewhat anachronistic in its traditional role as a defender
of Western values versus a competing bloc (Woodward 2008, 33). The
OECD needed to redefine its own mission. Ultimately, this also had a
substantial effect on the IO’s activities in education. By referring to
upcoming challenges due to globalization processes, the OECD increas-
ingly emphasized the development of human resources to counteract
emerging negative effects (OECD 1996; Henry et al. 2001). The idea of
preparing education systems for future challenges has become a founda-
tional part of the OECD’s stance on education. Education was defined as
a driving force for growth and development, and the OECD was com-
mitted to improving the quality of its member countries’ education sys-
tems (OECD 2010-2011). The OECD proactively worked on strategies
that dealt with the role of education in times of intensified globalization
and in light of the emerging knowledge society. It did so by conducting
reviews, producing empirical comparative data, and scrutinizing its mem-
ber countries’ education systems. Therefore, the surveys of the OECD
progressively took the economic implications of social policies into con-
sideration (Armingeon 2004, 226). The empirical data was supposed to
enable policy actors to draw inferences from the returns of human capital
produced through education. For instance, a strong positive correlation
between economic effects and educational background was pointed out
(OECD 2009, 5).
Together with the intensified research, a focus on the institutionaliza-
tion of education took place. Most prominently, PISA was established. In
1997, the PISA resolution was adopted, and beginning in the year 2000,
the standardized PISA study has been conducted every three years and
has substantially contributed to the OECD’s status as a leading IO in the
field of education—particularly since the IO started to interpret PISA
findings by itself in 2006. Furthermore, after the establishment of the
142 D. Niemann
Directorate for Education in 2002 and the Global Forum on Education

in 2005, it became clear that the OECD’s work on education occupied a
distinctive niche within the IO. The established bureaucratic structures
enabled the OECD to become an increasingly independent producer and
disseminator of knowledge in the education field (Morgan and Shahjahan
2014, 198).
In terms of the ideas of the OECD, the advancement of education
systems should contribute first and foremost to human capital formation
and secondarily to the progress of social citizenship (Robertson 2005,
157). The OECD views human capital as “a major driver of a country’s
trend productivity, not least through its impact on innovation” (OECD
2010c, 18). The economic-focused education policy framework was set-
tled mostly in the 1990s, when the aspect of equity was detached from
issues of redistribution; instead, it was linked to the aspect of human
capital in a globalized world. Education was increasingly heralded as “the
policy key to the future prosperity of nations” (Henry et al. 2001, 30).
Particularly from the OECD’s perspective, education is a resource for
innovation and to manage economic challenges. At this point, the theory
of human capital is used to comprehend the OECD’s policy framework
in education (OECD 1996, 1998).
However, the predominance of economic interests within the OECD’s
education approach has always been put into perspective by the inclusion
of the social dimension—though the social dimension has been subordi-
nated to economic considerations. For instance, the OECD noted that
education serves the provision of social cohesion and overall well-being,
including health issues (OECD 2010b). Remarkably, social cohesion
refers to economic factors; in order to create more social cohesion, educa-
tion should enable individuals to advance economically. National educa-
tion systems “need to equip people with knowledge, skills and tools to
stay competitive and engaged” (OECD 2010–2011, 3). The findings of
the OECD’s infamous PISA analysis confirm the positive returns on
employment, earnings, well-being, and contributions to society for the
individual as well as for the economy at large (OECD 2010a, 58).
Education was meant to provide support for the economy, as the econ-
omy is responsible for securing and fostering the well-being of the whole
society. Concerning this matter, social dimensions were also included in
the OECD’s leitmotif of education—however, under an economic-

centered framework. The OECD deviated further from the strict eco-
nomic notion of the education purpose with its 2030 learning compass,
where societal well-being was defined as a key role of education.5
Taken together, the education leitmotif of the OECD was twofold.
On the one hand, individuals benefit from education since they are
enabled to increase their quality of life with better employment and
higher economic returns. On the other (macroeconomic) hand, states
also substantially benefit from education by fostering economic growth
and strengthening social cohesion and the welfare state. Alternatively, the
economic-centered purpose of education posed by the OECD was
reduced to the point where the only real objectives were for students to
gain better job opportunities for individual well-being and to the calculus
of states to gain maximal returns on minimum inputs.
NESCO: A Specialized Education IO in Need

U
of Respecialization
Unlike the World Bank or the OECD, education has a lifelong and cen-
tral relevancy for UNESCO. This is no surprise given that the specialized
agency of the UN was explicitly established to deal with education, sci-
ence, and culture. And unlike the IOs with an economic-oriented back-
ground that tend to focus on the utilitarian value of education in terms
of economic outcomes, UNESCO has a different ideational take on the
purpose of education. UNESCO, like the ILO, always emphasized the
positive effect of education on individual well-being and social integra-
tion processes. The foundation for this understanding can already be
identified in UNESCO’s original mission, which was an instrumental
approach to secure peace through education and to declare access to edu-
cation as a universal human right. In addition, the IO’s central concern
in education policy has always been about the right to education and to
ensure that this right is respected and delivered (Interview UNESCO
C 2019).
5
https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/learning-
compass-2030/in_brief_Learning_Compass.pdf, last accessed 10/22/2020.
144 D. Niemann
Regarding its modus operandi, UNESCO was always a programmatic

IO that set normative stimuli and cooperated with global, regional, and
local stakeholders as opposed to an IO with an all-encompassing field
presence (Lerch and Buckner 2018, 32–33). UNESCO also generates its
own data on education, especially through its Institute for Statistics,
where it draws on this data when making decisions regarding its program.
However, the norms and values that the IO has incorporated are consid-
ered more important for UNESCO’s policy program (Interview
UNESCO A 2019). UNESCO’s general conference is held biannually,
and more than 190 member states decide upon new priorities for the IO’s
program. Unlike the World Bank or UNICEF, each state has the same
voting power, which makes it more egalitarian, on the one hand, but also
more vulnerable to vetoes and prolonged decision-making, on the other
hand. Hence, UNESCO is regarded as a highly politicized organization
(Interview UNESCO B 2019) that is closely tied to the demands of its
member states and less autonomous than, for example, the OECD. The
biggest challenge for UNESCO was (and still is) the discrepancy between
its wide objectives in education and its tight budget (Mundy 1999;
Menashy and Manion 2016).
UNESCO’s history of how it frames education has been comparatively
stable; however, it has not been immune to global trends and general
developments. Its purpose of education shifted over time to some degree,
and new views were incorporated into UNESCO’s ideational portfolio.
First of all, the utilitarian view on education became strengthened.
Additionally, the view that education was a means to gain economic ben-
efits grew within the IO. Also, in response to the initiatives of economic
IOs and their positive reception by national education stakeholders,
UNESCO incorporated ideas like human capital generation and the
applicability of acquired skills into its education leitmotif. Yet, above all,
the principle that education is a human right that enables societal inte-
gration and peace is the most important. The historical developments of
UNESCO illustrate this point.
After its inception in 1945, the IO’s main goal and efforts in education
were to eradicate illiteracy, especially among adults (Jones 2007). This
means that the education purpose focused on the individual and the abil-
ity to live a self-determined and prosperous life. Following the adoption
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General

Assembly in 1948, UNESCO supported free and compulsory basic edu-
cation (Jones 2007, 523).
Because internal and external challenges became more diverse in the
developed and developing world due to economic and technical progress
in the 1970s, UNESCO attempted “to construct a single, universal vision
of global educational futures” by calling for alternatives to formal school-
ing in its “Learning to Be” report (Mundy 1999, 37). Throughout the
early period of the Cold War, UNESCO aimed at socializing children
and adults to have greater international awareness by teaching global val-
ues like human rights and diversity (Lerch and Buckner 2018, 29). The
central mission of UNESCO’s educational approach was still to
secure peace.
From the mid-1970s, however, UNESCO was also affected by the
gradual replacement of the Keynesian economic paradigm with neolib-
eral views, and the significance of UNESCO began to decline. More and
more (notably Western) states began to align their welfare state policies
with neoliberal ideas. Social investments in education were no longer
considered primary policy tools.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the IO faced a major crisis. At the
height of the Cold War, UNESCO was massively criticized, mostly from
Western countries and particularly from the United States, for being a
politicized and mismanaged IO. This was in part because UNESCO had
increasingly aligned itself with various social movements led by states
from the Global South that called for a profound restructuring of the
world economic order in favor of developing countries and was thus chal-
lenging Western interests (Menashy and Manion 2016, 322). Tensions
rose and ultimately led to the withdrawal of the United States, the United
Kingdom, and Singapore in 1984–1985. For UNESCO, this not only
meant a significant drop in its budget by around a third but also a signifi-
cant loss of legitimacy. As Jones put it: “the designated ‘lead agency’ in
the UN system for education, UNESCO … was incapable of exercising
leadership in any of its multiple areas of responsibility” (Jones 2007,
146 D. Niemann
527).6 Due to this crisis, Mundy argues that UNESCO’s work in educa-
tion did not provide the IO with the necessary legitimacy and authority;
furthermore, between 1984 and 1988, no major impulses were added to
its education activity portfolio (Mundy 1999, 39, 42).
Another aspect of UNESCO’s decline was the rising importance of
other IOs in the education field. With UNESCO’s legitimacy fading and
the quality of its education work declining since the 1970s, IOs like the
World Bank, the OECD, and UNICEF stepped in (Burnett 2011). This
resembled a shift from cooperation to competition, as previously
UNESCO had relied on operational funding from the World Bank and
UNICEF (among others) to conduct on-site projects and UNESCO’s
expertise in education had been welcomed by other IOs (Jones 2007,
528). Starting in the 1980s, both funding agencies began to develop their
own expertise in education and established their own specialized educa-
tion initiatives.
After troublesome years, UNESCO’s leading role in education resur-
faced with the 1990 World Conference on Education for All, where
UNESCO made a strong case for universal basic education. UNESCO
was able to “re-enter a more public dialogue with its multilateral part-
ners …and… rebuild its role as a mediator between developing country
‘needs’ and the resources available from donor governments” (Mundy
1999, 44). With the World Education Forum in 2000, where UNESCO
once again was the lead agency, the general position was reconfirmed that
education is not only a fundamental human right but also “an essential
ingredient in the promotion of a global culture of peace, sustainable
development, equity, and social cohesion” (Menashy and Manion 2016,
323). With both initiatives, UNESCO synthesized cooperation with the
World Bank and other IOs.
In the context of the SDGs of 2016, UNESCO reemphasized its view
that educational development should contribute to social justice and
equality (Vaccari and Gardinier 2019, 72). “These times are calling for a
new humanism that marries human development with the preservation
6
Although the United States rejoined UNESCO in 2003 (UK in 1997 and Singapore in 2007), the
relationship remained rocky. In 2011, the United States suspended its payments again in response
to the acceptance of Palestine as a member and, together with Israel, left UNESCO for the second
time in 2018.
of the planet and that provides equal access to all to the benefits of educa-
tion” (UNESCO 2014, 7). The SDGs, particularly SDG4 that explicitly
deals with education, also set new priorities and strongly influenced
UNESCO’s work in the field of education. The general approach of the
SDGs as a whole introduced to UNESCO a more holistic view on educa-
tion and linked the topic of education to other issue areas, first and fore-
most to climate change (Interviews UNESCO A and C 2019).
UNESCO’s ideational view on the purpose of education became more
consistent over time. Throughout its existence, UNESCO was successful
in providing a normative framework that saw the various dimensions of
human rights as interdependent and indivisible (Jones 2007, 528). The
initial focus of UNESCO included peace as an overall outcome for edu-
cation, but later the IO linked education and conflict with an additional
interpretation of peace as a necessary precondition for individuals’ educa-
tional success (Lerch and Buckner 2018). UNESCO emphasized that
education strengthens “the foundations for international understanding,
co-operation and peace and the protection of human rights” (UNESCO
1991, 4). Hence, the focus in the context of education and conflict
shifted from a collective interpretation to a more individualistic one. This
was also reflected in other areas of the IO’s education leitmotif. UNESCO
strongly emphasizes the social value of education for integration but also
for individual economic development.
Basically, scientific humanism was the leading idea of UNESCO since
its establishment and shaped how education was framed; education was
understood as a lifelong process where the social dimension of cultural
(re-)production was included (Menashy and Manion 2016, 322). The IO
therefore focuses on a humanistic and holistic understanding of educa-
tion, where the self-development and the well-being of individuals and
society are dominant rather than the development of skills for the labor
market (Interview UNESCO A 2019). In its 2014 mission statement,
UNESCO reemphasized that education “contributes to the building of
peace, the eradication of poverty, and sustainable development and inter-
cultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communica-
tion and information” (UNESCO 2014, 13). UNESCO stresses that
universal norms and duties help individuals to become members of soci-
ety, as they transport values, history, and traditions to ensure social and
148 D. Niemann
cultural cohesion (UNESCO 1996, 9, Interviews UNESCO A, B 2019).

Hence, social cohesion and social justice play an important role when it
comes to specifying the purpose of education for UNESCO.
While other IOs, especially the OECD, frame education in the line of
competencies, UNESCO connects citizenship values of education to the
individual, viewing them as rights-holders. For UNESCO, the acquisi-
tion of skills was strongly associated with enacting social change and
equality (Vaccari and Gardinier 2019, 78, 79). Education is not only the
transmission of knowledge but also an avenue to self-empower people.
Generally, it should be ensured that education programs prepare people
to become responsible members of a global society and empower them to
become active citizens (Interview UNESCO A 2019). Hence, for
UNESCO, there are not only economic returns from an investment in
education but there are also societal returns (Interview UNESCO C
2019). And regarding the SDGs, UNESCO put forward the strategic
objective that “[e]ducation, learning and skills are both enablers and driv-
ers of inclusive and sustainable development and it is widely acknowl-
edged that no country can improve the living conditions of its people
without significant investment in education” (UNESCO 2014, 17).
However, UNESCO also stressed that making education more inclusive
for different (marginalized) social groups contributes to fighting poverty
and to the broader goals of social justice and social inclusion
(UNESCO 2008).
The ILO: Linking Decent Work and Decent Education
The ILO is an IO that is primarily concerned with employees’ rights and

other job-related issues, but it is always addressing education topics too.
Because of the ILO’s focus area, education has been associated with voca-
tional training and individual skill formation. Education policy initia-
tives of the ILO were usually coupled with topics of training and
development, particularly for countries in the Global South.
Generally, the ILO is a norm-setting organization in education that
reflects a soft governance approach without having the ability to enforce
decisions. While ratified recommendations are a powerful and binding
tool, most of the ILO’s work in education comprises analyses as well as

on-site studies, regional monitoring, and nonbinding best practice advice.
In the field of education, the ILO has a long history of cooperating with
other actors that hold the same ideational mindset. For example,
UNESCO and the ILO have been strategic partners in the field of educa-
tion for a long time. As early as 1948, both IOs agreed to collaborate on
technical and vocational education (Mundy 1999, 31).
The ILO’s primary mandate is to protect working people, to promote
labor and human rights, and to promote social justice (Hughes 2005,
413). Like UNESCO, the ILO emphasized a holistic and humanistic
leitmotif in education and did not bring utilitarian economic views to the
fore. Although the economic dimension of education issues was always
existent in the ideational portfolio of the ILO, it never overshadowed the
social citizenship interpretation. In contrast to the World Bank and the
OECD, the ILO’s understanding of economic education ideas was to
focus on the benefits for the individual and not on the whole economic
development of states.
The ILO’s humanistic, social take on the purpose of education is also
reflected in the IO’s history and its view on education over time. Since its
inception in 1919, the ILO was concerned with broader social welfare
policies (Strang and Chang 1993) and highlighted the social significance
of education for the improvement of quality of life (Steffek and Holthaus
2018). In its Declaration of Philadelphia from 1944, the ILO defined
one of its tasks as being to support “the assurance of equality of educa-
tional and vocational opportunity” (ILO 1944).
Since the 1950s and 1960s, technical assistance programs of the ILO
in cooperation with domestic stakeholders became more important, par-
ticularly in developing states in Asia and Africa. Consequently, the ILO
engaged in educational program activities (Strang and Chang 1993, 241;
Interview ILO A 2019). Successively, the ILO expanded its initiatives on
labor protection to also cover “the domain of human rights and tie these
to the pursuit of freedom and economic progress” (Hughes 2005, 414).
This gradual shift also has some important implications for the ILO’s
work in education and training because with this altered emphasis, mat-
ters of education were pulled into the ILO’s sphere of responsibility. As
the ILO stresses the importance of equal opportunities as a basic human
150 D. Niemann
right, it necessarily implies the relevancy of it for education as well. Equal

opportunities can best be achieved by ensuring access to high-quality
education for all children and adults in the view of lifelong learning.
Here, the holistic and humanistic leitmotif of the ILO in education was
evident: “Education … should be directed to the all-round development
of the human personality and to the spiritual, moral, social, cultural and
economic progress of the community, as well as to the inculcation of deep
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” (UNESCO and
ILO 1966, 4).
While the ILO remained a central education actor with its technical
reports and approaches to support development in the 1970s and 1980s,
the upcoming neoliberal zeitgeist made it difficult for the IO to maintain
its significance in the international system (Haworth and Hughes 2012,
205). A new framework approach was required that would also influence
the ILO’s work in education. After the end of the Cold War, the ILO
started to address how market liberalism and intensified globalization
processes affected social rights and sought to integrate universal labor
standards into international trade agreements.
Eventually, with the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work and its Follow-Ups, the ILO postulated “Core Labour
Standards” (CLS) and expanded beyond issues directly related to work.
The ILO directly referred to basic human rights and societal values that
needed to be enhanced (Hughes 2005). The CLS “were framed as truly
global, a set of rights which does not need national government approval”
(Römer et al. 2021). Due to this framework, the right to education was
emphasized by the ILO and the function of education as a means for
individual self-development was stressed. Hence, the topic of education
was decoupled from the direct linkage to the work environment, where it
became a more independent topic area of the ILO.
More importantly, the ILO’s Decent Work Initiative of 1999 affirmed
the understanding that social norms and values must be reinforced; work-
ers should be enabled to benefit from economic growth due to the neces-
sary skills and opportunities education provides (Hughes 2005). Among
other things, the ILO stipulated that education systems should be
designed to enable knowledge transfer and skill formation, especially for
disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. The ILO later argued that
education is a central pillar for “employability, employment of workers

and sustainable enterprise development within the Decent Work Agenda”
(ILO 2008, 1). While the overall focus was still on vocational training,
the general education idea of the ILO became apparent in the Decent
Work Initiative: education enables people to “achieve full personal devel-
opment and social inclusion through work participation” (Deranty and
MacMillan 2012, 391). Hence, by focusing on the individual, the pur-
pose of education goes beyond enhancing economic productivity. Due to
the realization that workers need decent work, education became a pri-
mary objective of the ILO and the IO came to recognize “that education,
training and lifelong learning are contributing factors to personal devel-
opment, access to culture and active citizenship” (ILO 2004, 1).
The key education ideas of the ILO are reflected in the fact that the IO
generally follows a human rights approach and denotes the importance of
universally valid norms. Against the background of the ILO not seeing
labor as a commodity, the term human capital is critically evaluated and
not regarded as central to the ILO’s own view (Interviews ILO A, B
2019). Instead, enhancing human capabilities was put to the forefront of
the ILO’s understanding of education (Interviews ILO B, C 2019). In
this context, the perspective on the individual becomes apparent in the
ILO’s education idea. Central to the IO is the view that education should
qualify individuals for the labor market by activating skills (Interviews
ILO A, B, C 2019). This skill building is not solely focused on technical
skills but also understood as acquiring soft skills for professional transi-
tions within the labor market. (Interview ILO C 2019). In this regard,
the purpose of education for the ILO has a strong emphasis on enabling
individuals to cope with job-related challenges but also on the promotion
of lifelong learning. However, for the ILO, the goal of education is more
than just labor market preparation; it also prepares people for commu-
nity life and related social tasks (Interview ILO A 2019).
Another dimension of the ILO’s educational work is reflected in the
context of the supply-side of education systems: teachers. A large share of
the ILO’s activities in education has always dealt with the improvement
of the work environment and employment conditions for teachers. On
the one hand, teachers are employees whose interests should be repre-
sented by the ILO. On the other hand, the ILO also acknowledges that
152 D. Niemann
improving the job conditions of teachers and higher education personnel

has important consequences for the education system as a whole
(Interview ILO A 2019). If teachers are better trained, the general quality
of education improves.
It is important to note that the perspective on the economic benefits of
education is not neglected by the ILO. Improvements in education sys-
tems could lead to economic growth, but the ILO stresses that education
developments in the economic sector and the labor market must be
viewed in tandem: “Skills are fundamental to, but not sufficient for, gain-
ing decent jobs: linking skills with employment opportunities and decent
work is critical” (ILO 2012, 2). If the focus is solely on providing better
access to higher education but the national job market is not readily
developed for a highly skilled labor force, the general economic improve-
ment is nullified.
In connection with individual skill formation, an education purpose
that promotes social cohesion, social justice, and integration is also
deemed important to the ILO (Interviews ILO A, C 2019). Recent devel-
opments in the ILO’s education concepts indicate that the purpose of
education should extend beyond the labor market and increasingly aim at
promoting active citizenship.7 Even more, the ILO has established the
flagship program “Jobs for Peace and Resilience”, where skill formation is
conceptualized as the cornerstone of the strategy (Interview ILO B 2019).
These examples underscore that the ILO’s leitmotif regarding the pur-
pose of education became more diverse over time. The strict link to jobs
and the labor market was weakened, while a perspective that acknowl-
edges a broader purpose of education was institutionalized. Against the
background of accelerating globalization processes, which bring about
new challenges for employability and skill formation, the ILO empha-
sized the interconnectedness of different relevant aspects of education:
skill formation, equal opportunities, economic development, and social
cohesion. However, the view of the ILO in education still prioritizes the
perspective of individual workers. Therefore, improvements in education
are expected to improve the situation of individuals.
7
See: Future of Work reports and position papers: https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/future-of-
work/lang%2D%2Den/index.htm, last accessed 10/22/2020.
onclusion and Discussion: A Reflection

C
on Integrative Ideas
When comparing the ideational framings of the education purposes of

the four IOs, we can identify several differences but also some shared
views that existed early on. All IOs consider education and access to edu-
cation as a basic human right. While UNESCO and the World Bank
stated it first, the OECD and the ILO also emphasize the importance of
education as a fundamental right of each individual. At the beginning of
their educational activities, the two economic IOs (the World Bank and
the OECD) were strongly associated with economic interpretations of
education topics, reflecting their original field of expertise. Later, they
broadened their ideational portfolio in education and also embraced
views that did not necessarily focus on maximizing productivity and
human capital. Instead, interpretations of the education purpose related
to individual well-being and social cohesion came to the center of their
leitmotifs. In addition, the IOs with humanistic education ideas (the ILO
and UNESCO) expanded their ideational views on education by
acknowledging the role of education in fostering national eco-
nomic growth.
However, it has been shown above that the four globally operating
education IOs prioritized different ideas on education. Basically, a dual-
ism between economic utilitarian views (World Bank and OECD) and
idealistic humanistic (UNESCO and ILO) views can be identified. This
dualism was embodied in the IO’s education programs from the begin-
ning and was translated into concrete actions and policy recommenda-
tions. An initial ideological rivalry between the “old dogs” (UNESCO
and the ILO) and the “new kids on the block” (the World Bank and the
OECD) can be observed. Since the latecomer education IOs from the
economic sphere (the World Bank and the OECD) had more resources
readily available and were backed by national governments, the well-
established IOs (UNESCO and the ILO) saw them as competitors.
Contestation between both types of IOs was also amplified by funda-
mentally different leitmotifs regarding the purpose of education. The
globally dominant view on the purpose of education oscillated over time
154 D. Niemann
between the utilitarian and the humanistic citizenship perspective;

depending on the leading economic paradigms and international devel-
opments of the time, the view on education accordingly shifted from one
pole to the other, with education IOs being associated with one or
the other.
While during some periods, like in the 1980s, the ideas were presented
as mutually exclusive and contestation prevailed between the IOs, nowa-
days an integrative approach toward education ideas can be observed
within the population of global IOs. By the end of the 1990s, this com-
petition of ideas became less distinctive and dominant. This easing polar-
ity could also be attributed to the IOs’ activities and their ideational
interpretation of education. In the two decades after the turn of the mil-
lennium, the IOs pursued an integrative approach in defining what the
aim of education should be based on, which included empirical assess-
ments that were less biased by ideational assumptions. While still viewing
education either primarily as an economic endeavor or as a social right of
citizens, the four education IOs analyzed in this chapter nonetheless
acknowledged the opposing position and tied it into their own ideational
leitmotifs. For example, in its 2018 World Development Report, the
World Bank emphasized the integrative power of education, stating that
national education systems should aim to educate students so that they
become more refined human beings within society (World Bank 2018).
On the other hand, UNESCO acknowledged in 2014 that one of the
most important things education could accomplish includes skill devel-
opment for the job market, so that individuals can contribute to the
economic development of their country or society (UNESCO 2014). In
contrast, the previous ideas remain valid. In 2018, UNESCO and the
ILO stated in a declaration that “education is not a commodity” (ILO
and UNESCO 2018). This underscores the prevalent framing of educa-
tion as a human right. Hence, when analyzing the education ideas of
individual IOs, the trend of general convergence must be revised. Also,
the examples of the World Bank and the OECD show that some decou-
pling and showcasing took place. While both IOs ostensibly referred to
holistic education ideas, including aspects of social cohesion, a utilitarian
framing is predominant in their ideational portfolio when
communicating their position on education. The economic utility of

education outcomes is superordinate to all else.
While this chapter offered a comparative analysis of the changing pri-
orities in the education leitmotifs of four global IOs, it certainly falls
short in assessing the actual impact of the changing discourse. It was not
in the scope of this chapter to link altered ideational framings to concrete
policy actions taken by individual IOs. In this regard, the potential
decoupling between ideas and on-site activities of IOs, which was coined
by Weaver (2008) as “organized hypocrisy”, was excluded from this anal-
ysis. Fontdevila and Verger (2020) have demonstrated that there is some
discrepancy between the World Bank’s “talk” and its “actions” when it
comes to supporting the implementation of education programs.
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right holder.
6
Finding the Poster Child: Reference
Patterns in OECD Country Reports
Helen Seitzer
Introduction1
Universal compulsory education is a crucial aspect of today’s welfare state
legislation. With only a few exceptions, most countries around the world
have at least implemented compulsory primary education (Chap. 2).
However, this is not the only aspect of formalized schooling that most
countries around the globe have in common. For quite some time now,
researchers have observed an increasing similarity in education systems
(Boli et al. 1985). A prominent theoretical approach used to explain this
phenomenon is Meyer and colleagues’ neo-institutionalist theory, which
1
SFB 1342.
H. Seitzer (*)

164 H. Seitzer
offers an explanation for globally shared institutional structures. The

acceptance and adoption of standards and norms by major players in
world society create pressure for other countries to implement these stan-
dards as well (Meyer et al. 1997). Nonetheless, the conditions of formal-
ized schooling still differ between countries, for example, in terms of
duration and modality (Chap. 3). Consequently, researchers have been
not only asking how it is that education systems around the world have
come to resemble each other but also where these features originated
from, who is influencing this pool of standards, and which aspects of
formalized schooling remain distinctive between countries (Meyer
et al. 1997).
To answer the question, where the global standards established in edu-
cation policy could come from, one has to ask who is influencing world
society and driving the implementation of set global standards on a
national level. One big influencing force is International Organizations
(IOs). Interest groups like IOs, think tanks, and policy experts have
increasingly gained influence in setting standards in world society and
therefore on policy diffusion. Extensive data collection for evidence-
based policymaking through International Large-Scale Assessments
(ILSAs) along with policy advice in the form of policy reports have sig-
nificantly simplified the process of identifying ‘what works’ in education
and contributed to the perception of IOs, like the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as ‘knowledge bro-
kers’ of policymaking and drivers of policy diffusion (Niemann and
Martens 2018). The comparison of education systems through the
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and country
reports increases the use of references to foreign education system charac-
teristics during policy development process in hopes of finding solutions
to local problems in foreign education systems. In theory, this helps poli-
cymakers to identify ‘best practice’ models, place outcomes into perspec-
tive, and justify domestic reforms (Steiner-Khamsi 2014).
However, the OECD reports and policy recommendations are coined
by a neo-institutional model of education inherent to the OECD, empha-
sizing aspects like school and regional autonomy, governing at a distance,
and the implementation of global tests and standards. With this observa-
tion comes the concern of a one-size-fits-all distribution of a
6 Finding the Poster Child: Reference Patterns in OECD Country… 165
Western-rationalized education system that suppresses local influences

and ignores local labor market needs (Zhao 2020). Despite the criticism
that the OECD’s overall approach to education is not only influenced by
economic factors but also a Western-rationalist perspective, it is not
entirely transparent which (Western-rationalized) education systems
serve the OECD as reference models, or if there is such a thing as a single
‘ideal model’. As a consequence of this lack of clarity, one could ask where
exactly standards, policies, and the recommendations thereof come from;
and how one country is informed of another country’s education system,
which might hold beneficial features. However, these questions are rarely
asked in a comparative perspective but studied through country case
studies.
In this chapter, I intend to close this gap and review the developmental
trajectory of education policy recommendations in OECD publications.
By analyzing the reference patterns within OECD country reports on
education, I seek to understand if Western countries are indeed at the
center of OECD policy recommendations and, if so, which countries are
especially central. In addition, I seek to understand if there are specific
education systems that are increasingly pushed toward a Western model,
or if all countries are equally subject to that influence. Is the OECD
strictly comparing Western and non-Western education systems, or is
there a clear reference or recommendation path from only select Western
countries toward the global periphery? Or if this not the case, are regional
comparisons more common within the country reports?
To answer these questions, I will examine country reports on educa-
tion by the OECD. Specifically, I will examine a network of country
reports and the countries mentioned within them. This will display which
countries are used as examples for policymaking in other countries’
reports. First, I will assess visually if there are regional clusters detectable.
Then, I will explore if there are more references within the clusters or
between them. Therefore, establishing if the OECD has a region or coun-
try they perpetually use as an example for other countries. Furthermore,
I will test the network statistically using an exponential random graph
model. Consequently, the contribution of this chapter lies in the disag-
gregation of OECD references, detecting the most central education sys-
tem, and regional reference patterns in OECD reports on education.
166 H. Seitzer
Ranking, Reporting, and Referencing

As stated before, the isomorphism of institutions like formalized educa-
tion is not surprising. The adherence of countries to world society stan-
dards has just as much to do with the social standing of these countries in
world society as it does with improving their citizens’ welfare (Ramirez
et al. 2016).
The OECD can be regarded as the strongest driver of policy diffusion
to date (Martens et al. 2014). The organization not only evaluates educa-
tion systems through studies like PISA but also publishes a multitude of
reports on different aspects of countries’ education systems. The results of
these studies and reports are often used to highlight ‘best practices’ to
rank countries within league tables based on their performance but also
to shame countries depending on their results (Tingley and Tomz 2019).
These rankings are highly influential, as the strong reactions of some
countries in the form of policy reforms indicate (Pons 2012).
Even before the commencement of PISA, the OECD published coun-
try reports, making policy recommendations based on their statistical
analysis of the status quo. The targeted and effective publicity of these
reports pressures countries to implement reforms according to the global
standards, constituting the OECD’s soft power (Addey 2017; Bieber
2016; Bieber and Martens 2011). Even though the reports assess within-
country aspects and are discussed among country delegates, they still
heavily draw on the OECD’s perspective. Centeno (2018), for example,
states that the OECD secretariats have the decision-making power, as the
reports are published under the secretariats’ names (instead of the indi-
vidual authors’) and country delegates have to agree on the publications.
But, since the OECD is officially working on behalf of the country offi-
cials, there tends to be minimal pushback, especially as country delegates
perceive the OECD as working for them (Centeno 2018, 125). Not only
does the OECD have a uniquely strong impact, but its headquarters are
indeed located in western Europe. Statistically speaking, most of the sci-
entists employed there might, more often than not, be born and trained
somewhere in Europe or a country with similar academic traditions. This
might cause a cultural bias, a phenomenon that can affect everyone.
Therefore, the suspicion that the OECD is spreading a Western model of

education is not unreasonable and this concern has only become more
pronounced with the introduction of PISA and its reports (Zhao 2020).
Aside from Hong Kong, Shanghai, South Korea, and Japan, the top per-
formers of PISA are all located in Europe.
Another area of controversy regarding the OECD’s policy recommen-
dations concerns the perceived origin of ideas and standards as well as the
strictness thereof. So far, research claims that the original ‘model educa-
tion system’ was developed in Europe, in a Western society (Meyer et al.
1997; Anderson-Levitt 2003). Consequently, the outcomes, student
achievement, and knowledge are tailored to prepare students for a
Western-style capitalist labor market and society. While some countries
are struggling to implement these standards, one of which is the partici-
pation in international large-scale assessments like PISA, it is said to
unfairly benefit those countries whose education system is already built
on these standards (Zhao 2020). In addition, the idea of education as a
means to improve the workforce and thereby the national economy is a
concept that originates in a capitalist, neoliberal society (Rutkowski
2007). The norms and values attached to this perspective on formalized
education have an impact on the curriculum and the overall emphasis of
formalized schooling in society (Steiner-Khamsi 2013; Anderson-Levitt
2003). The question here is whether these values apply to all cultures
around the globe, or if there are other emphases that the education sys-
tem should incorporate, especially in developing countries.
To identify these standards and norms, however, a certain level of com-
parison is necessary. In fact, comparison and references to foreign politi-
cal systems has a long history. As Alasuutari et al. (2018) show in their
study on British parliament debate records, referencing of foreign policies
has been occurring since the 1800s. A more recent development is the
notion of a ‘model policy’. Early references simply state examples of for-
eign systems, while recent policy references in British parliament refer to
specific policies, indicating the idea of a model or blueprint policy to
learn from (Alasuutari et al. 2018). Luhmann’s theory on self-referential
systems offers an explanation for this phenomenon: He states that coun-
tries need to define themselves in demarcation to other countries, thereby
creating a feedback system allowing them to redefine, experience, and
168 H. Seitzer
rebuild their own identity. This, in turn, aids in implementing local regu-
lations, which are distinct from the (national) ‘other’ (Luhmann 1990).
His theory indicates that the comparison of education systems and their
outcomes might be a more naturally occurring process than expected at
first glance. This theory also accounts for a more local reference pattern
instead of an overarching global model. However, the critical aspect
regarding the dominating Western origin of policies and norms remains,
especially if Western education systems are frequently referenced as
examples.
References in an academic context usually refer to the citation of other
academic works in a publication. In our context, however, it denotes the
mention of a country in another country’s report. These references are
usually used as examples. This process allows us to trace potential influ-
ence: If one country is mentioned frequently or positively in another
country’s report, the probability of some kind of knowledge transfer
increases. At the same time, by including a source for their recommenda-
tions and citing certain education systems as successes, the OECD’s
claims that certain reforms could improve a given education system are
legitimized. References can, therefore, also be seen as a validation instru-
ment (Steiner-Khamsi 2021). The references along with the publication
of PISA results allow certain countries to gain a reputation as ‘reference
societies’: countries whose education systems are regularly referenced as
role models by other countries (Waldow et al. 2014; Adamson et al.
2017). These reference societies can change, as Silova (2006) observed: In
post-Soviet states, Soviet references were removed and replaced with
European references after the collapse of the Soviet Union, not only
marking political changes but also the implied political orientation.
Interestingly, this change only affected the discursive level and not the
actual education system (Silova 2006). In addition, prejudice and culture
play a significant role for reference societies: While some countries like
Hong Kong and Shanghai are praised for their high PISA performance,
they are rarely observed as reference societies. Teaching practices in Asia
and the West are rumored to be significantly different, which in turn
prevents these education systems from spreading, despite the excellent
PISA scores (Waldow et al. 2014).
As with global standards, a controversial issue that frequently resur-

faces in this debate is the origin of these reference societies, since most are
located in Europe (Schriewer and Matinez 2004; Silova 2006; Steiner-
Khamsi 2021). Even though single country reports and the use of exter-
nal publications in national policymaking have been studied extensively
(e.g. Baek et al. 2018; Adamson et al. 2017), the OECD’s recommenda-
tions and references often remain vague and are rarely dissected and com-
pared globally.
The Influence of World Society

As stated before, since education systems around the globe share certain
characteristics such as classroom structures, curricula, and various admin-
istrative aspects like ministers, researchers have theorized as to how these
commonalities came to be (Anderson-Levitt 2003, 5). The most com-
monly accepted theory of a shared world society describes a latent set of
policy and norm development that is influenced by countries, IOs, and
other actors. This implicit space of norms can be seen as an arena for
policy diffusion: Countries legitimize themselves by adopting similar
standards not only in education policy but also regarding broader con-
cepts such as human rights and democracy (Meyer et al. 1997). This
shared action allows for the dissemination of specific policies as well as
ideas and understandings regarding education, its institutional structure,
and its function within society. The implementation of global standards
then increases interactions between countries and strengthens interna-
tional relations due to seemingly shared ideologies. Very commonly, the
standards adopted by world society originate in policy reports or papers
regarding countries in the Global North. The OECD contributes greatly
to the overall content of discussion in this space and therefore heavily
influences the ‘pool of accepted ideas’ from which countries can choose
education policy reforms. This creates homogeneity among countries
that are part of world society. And while the OECD’s reports are limited
to countries commissioning them, world society is influencing all coun-
tries simultaneously. The OECD’s recommendations, therefore, not only
influence its member countries but also reach an increasing number of
170 H. Seitzer
non-member states globally (Breakspear 2012). Important to note here is

the agency countries have in this scenario but also the agency the OECD
has in informing world society. The adoption of policies is action taken
by countries alone but the distribution of information, which policies
should be adopted, is the OECD’s doing. The OECD influences world
society standards by recommending specific aspects of education systems
to many countries simultaneously, thereby increasing the diffusion of
specific policies, creating a standardized education system around
the globe.
On the other hand, education has traditionally been a local or national
subject but is now heavily influenced at a global level (Sellar and Lingard
2014). In a traditional sense, education systems are initially derived from
local, cultural contexts and are dependent on the local meaning of educa-
tion, its tasks, and its functions within society. Although formalized
schooling is already a form of standardization on the local level, global
standards are much more critically debated. While some common insti-
tutional structures are observable (Anderson-Levitt 2003), some studies
argue the acceptance of global standards is more of a political act and
requires a level of universality, precision, and rationality that only few
standards possess (Steiner-Khamsi 2013). Instead, countries implement
standards only to a certain degree, retaining their cultural originality.
The debate on institutional isomorphism and the worldwide standard-
ization of norms naturally leads to the question, how culture affects the
expansion of standards and fosters or mediates the influence of world
society. The definition of ‘culture’ and its influences on individual and
institutional behavior are important but also controversial issues in social
sciences (Anderson-Levitt 2012). While some approaches to cultural
influences define rigid ‘fault lines’ separating cultural spaces and defining
potential ‘breaking points’ (Huntington 1996), other approaches define
culture as a set of common characteristics, such as religion, gender roles,
language groups, and civil rights. The cultural spheres concept introduced
in Chap. 2 defines culture as a valued two-mode network. If two coun-
tries share a cultural characteristic, they establish a link in a network. This
approach allows for fuzzy boundaries, where ties between countries are
stronger the more cultural characteristics they share. This network also
allows for the definition of five cultural clusters, which will be included
in the analysis further on. As discussed in Chap. 2, the exposure through

this cultural network determines the introduction of compulsory educa-
tion. To be more specific, the membership in certain cultural clusters,
namely, Eastern European and WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized,
resourceful, democratic) (Henrich 2020), increased the risk of introduc-
ing compulsory education.
Since formalized education is crucial for socialization and has devel-
oped over time in different ways depending on the local culture and his-
tory, it is also said to reproduce the culture of the origin country or region
(Anderson-Levitt 2012). However, the standardization of education
through the influence of IOs, like the OECD, fosters a narrow curricu-
lum that only prepares students for a Western labor market and does not
allow room for regional-specific education with regional-specific out-
comes. This ultimately reproduces Western culture and homogenizes
institutional forms as well as culture. Therefore, the standardization of
education is often called Westernization or Americanization (Koh 2011;
Alasuutari and Kangas 2020). Historically, political systems used to ori-
ent themselves toward historically or culturally similar countries (Bermeo
1992). This push toward a Western education system by instituting a
‘global model’ within world society undermines not only local influences
but also local comparisons.
The question remaining is whether OECD references, seeing as they
are pathways of influence, are restricted to a Western origin. Is the OECD
undoubtedly favoring a Western model of education?
here to Look: Referencing

W
in National Policymaking
Several previous studies have investigated the origin of education policy
reforms, mostly looking into single countries (e.g. Baek et al. 2018;
Dobbins and Martens 2010). The data of various country reports sup-
plied by the OECD provide excellent material for national policymakers
to distinguish their national agenda from other nation-states—or to use
them as an example for the reform implementation. It seems to be
172 H. Seitzer
common practice for policymakers to consult experts before attempting

to implement a reform, regardless if their advice was directly employed
into policy action or not. This is naturally an excellent area for references
between countries (Rautalin et al. 2018; Waldow et al. 2014).
Referencing foreign policies is not a phenomenon limited to education
policy or the time after PISA, as discovered by Alasuutari and colleagues.
British policy debates contain a relatively stable number of references to
foreign systems, even historically (Alasuutari et al. 2018). Referencing
and policy borrowing do not necessarily occur because reforms from else-
where are better but because the very act of borrowing has a salutary
effect on the relations between countries (Steiner-Khamsi 2006).
Finland, for example, served as a reference society after the first few
PISA rounds, having achieved the highest performance out of all partici-
pants. Since then, Hong Kong and Shanghai have taken over that rule.
However, despite the ranking, the choice of education systems as refer-
ence societies depends heavily on the interrelation of the respective
nation-states and local traditions. Despite outstanding PISA scores, the
Shanghai education system served as a negative reference point for several
countries. The negative references are based on local culture—the (recent)
European tradition of student-centered education stands in sharp con-
trast to Hong Kong’s teacher-centered practice (Waldow et al. 2014).
Nevertheless, Shanghai schools are praised for following the current per-
formance standards of education.
Further studies found differential effects for referencing depending on
the policy field and the subject in question. Furthermore, national refer-
ences often seem to entail multiple countries depending on the policy
context rather than just one, even though regional references often
include blanket descriptors (‘crisis-countries’, ‘well-off countries’) (Pi Pi
Ferrer et al. 2018). In addition to empirical evidence, both historical and
cultural contexts seem to influence references as well (Sung and Lee 2017).
In general, references to other countries within policymaking processes
seem to be quite common. The externalization of policy problems has
become somewhat common in policy transfer research (Schriewer and
Holmes 1990).
There are a few things to take away from studies on referencing in
education policy: (1) The phenomenon is quite common in all policy
fields and generally seen as a pipeline for influence between countries. It

also affects academia, politics, and newspapers alike. (2) Countries are
not the only ones that make references throughout policy documents. In
fact, IOs are also considered influential in the creation of reference societ-
ies. While PISA certainly aided Finland and the Nordic countries in
becoming reference societies, meaning they are the reference country for
almost all other countries, PISA is not universally powerful. (3) Other
aspects like cultural context play a role in the making of reference societ-
ies as well. What is missing in this research branch is the analysis of refer-
ences within OECD documents. Even though not necessarily as powerful
as the PISA results, other OECD published reports still bear great influ-
ence, as the OECD’s ‘best practice’ models offer ‘blueprints’ for policy
reform. The contribution of this chapter therefore lies in the disentangle-
ment of OECD references, that is, in identifying the most central educa-
tion systems or regional clustering in reference patterns within OECD
reports.
Data
The data consist of 296 reports on countries’ education systems that have
been published through the OECD’s publishing service between 1961
and 2019. The reports are published regularly on topics like Higher
Education, Regional Development in regard to Education, Early
Childhood Education and Care, and other aspects of formalized educa-
tion. Reports are written by OECD staff in collaboration with experts on
the subject within the country. Thus, as stated before, the content of
these reports does not exclusively reflect either the OECD perspective or
the perspective of country experts. However, studies were able to observe
that the OECD does exercise strong control over the reports’ contents
(Centeno 2018).
The reports are reoccurring publications containing statistical and in-
depth analyses, discussing the status quo of a country’s education system.
They are organized in standardized series, discussing, for example, the
status of the Early Childhood Education and Care system in place,
Higher Education Management and Planning, Regional and City
174 H. Seitzer
Development, or the overall reform efforts taken by countries in educa-

tion since the last report. This tool provides policymakers with evidence
for policymaking, showcases improvements, and makes recommenda-
tions on the grounds of other country reports or publications. Early
reports often contained multiple countries in one publication, but the
recent expansion and extensive data collection allow for 400 pages of
figures and tables for each country almost every year.
To provide an example: In a report on Chile’s education system in
2017 the OECD stated, “The centrally managed student allocation sys-
tem in the Netherlands is another good option to keep in mind” (OECD
2017: 102), while discussing student allocation systems to different
schools. Further on, they state that “[i]n the Netherlands, the Girls and
Technology programme (Meisjes en Techniek) encourages girls to choose
technical education and professions” (OECD 2017: 106), in a high-
lighted box along with more examples and citations to pinpoint options
on how to close Chile’s growing gender gap in science, technology, and
math courses. These references are assumed to be always positive, unlike
policymakers or scholars, the organization would severely damage their
own reputation by highlighting negative examples. While there might be
a bias toward OECD members, due to more information present, this is
not a concern, as there are still reports by non-OECD members; simi-
larly, non-OECD members are referenced to.
The publications in question were collected in 2019 from the OECD’s
online library2 and the OECD Archive in Paris. The final dataset consists
of all country reports tagged with the label ‘Education’ by the OECD. A
total of 296 country reports were published solely on education between
1961 and 2019. Sixty-five different countries commissioned country
reports during that time. The documents were cleaned of tables and fig-
ures to avoid distorting the analysis.
A bibliographic analysis was performed, filtering the reports for refer-
ences to other countries. Usually, bibliographical analyses on references
means tracing the origin of other cited publications. Here, only mentions
of country names are counted as references. These mentions allow us to
trace which countries are most likely used as an example for which other
2
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org.
Fig. 6.1 Regional country groups according to Maddison
countries’ report. This allows the building of a network between country

reports and cited countries. This network includes a total of 129 coun-
tries, as some countries did not commission reports but were still cited.
For the graphical analysis, self-references were removed as were all refer-
ences below 10 mentions and above 200 mentions per country and per
report, as they were suspected to be computation errors. The references
were aggregated at the report level.
For further graphical analysis, the network was inspected after includ-
ing the world regions developed by the Maddison Project (Fig. 6.1).3
Finally, an Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) for the regional
groupings was implemented to show which countries were most often
cited from outside their regional cluster and which clusters mostly cited
other countries within the regional group.
Results
A total of 129 unique countries were referenced in the reports. The coun-
tries with the highest indegree—which means they were most frequently
referenced—were Finland (a total of 1729 mentions), Germany (1685),
Sweden (1407), and Australia (1300). Most references for Finland came
3
http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/oriindex.htm.
176 H. Seitzer
from Sweden, Norway, the United States, South Korea, and Japan. The
country report with the most references of one specific country in a report
was a report on Tajikistan, having referenced Kazakhstan a total of 381
times in one single report. The next most frequent references were from
reports on Great Britain (specifically) mentioning England (291). The
following three most frequent mentions were all from reports on the
United States that referenced Singapore, Finland, and Germany. As one
would expect, OECD countries that commission reports themselves are
much more frequently referenced than countries that have not issued
reports. This glimpse into the reference frequency hints toward an inter-
esting development: There might be a regional reference pattern, as
reports on Sweden and Norway often reference Finland, reports on
Tajikistan references Kazakhstan, and reports on Great Britain discuss
England specifically.4
Figure 6.2 shows the network with a stress majorization layout, placing
the nodes with an optimal distance to each other: Nodes with many ties
are placed in the middle, while isolated nodes are placed on the outside
of the graph. The more ties that exist between two nodes, the closer
together they are placed. This allows for a preliminary visual interpreta-
tion of possible reference patterns.
The network is a two-mode network: Country reports (circles) can
only have outgoing ties and references (triangles) only have ingoing ties.
The colors distinguish different regional clusters as described earlier. The
tie strength signifies the frequency of a particular report referencing a
particular country.
What is interesting to observe in this network is that there is a clear
distinction between countries in the center, which are frequently refer-
enced and those that are on the periphery of the graph. While Western
European countries and Western Offshoots (Australia, Canada, New
Zealand, and the USA) are frequently referenced and, therefore. at the
center of the graph, African countries are not and are spread far out on
the edges of the graph. Some of the Western Asian, Latin American, and
4
Great Britain does not have one education system but several, depending on the political unit,
therefore these regions were separated. It also demonstrates the OECD’s priority of England over
Wales or Scotland.
Fig. 6.2 Network of references
Eastern European or Asian countries are referenced often, while others

are referenced much less. Their reference pattern is not as obvious. It
seems as if the OECD does have a preference for referencing European
countries relatively often. At the same time, there seems to be a geo-
graphical preference: Countries of the same region often cite reports of
their neighbors, as the color pattern suggests. This indicates, at least
within the OECD, regional references are equally as important as the
reference to ‘ideal cases’, such as Singapore. But the fact that the refer-
ences are not exclusively distributed within single clusters or to specific
countries show that the suspected dissemination of a Western model
might not be as strong as initially expected.
This observation is even more pronounced when only including reports
published after the introduction of the PISA study in 2000. Even though
Western European countries are in the center of the graph (see Fig. 6.3),
just like before PISA’s introduction, the regional clustering is more appar-
ent. Especially the East Asian and Eastern European countries are often
mentioned in reports from the same regional cluster. The countries with
the most references after the year 2000 are Finland (949), Germany
178 H. Seitzer
Fig. 6.3 Network of references after 2000
(798), Australia (742), and Canada (594). There seems to be favoritism

toward European countries as reference points instead of toward PISA
top performers. Germany, for example, did not score very high in the first
PISA test round. Furthermore, despite being a top performer, Singapore
was only referenced 226 times—a rather unexpected result. Chile, on the
other hand, is referenced 482 times, despite consistently ranking below
the OECD average. These results already indicate that the OECD does
not have one single poster child but that there is not a general global
model at play either.
To support this finding of unexpectedly frequent regional references
with statistical results, Table 6.1 shows the results of a bipartite exponen-
tial random graph model (ERGM) that predicts the probability of tie
formation between a report (network 1) and a country cited (network 2)
in the network. In general, ERGMs allow the estimation of the likelihood
of tie formation given all present ties in the network as well as node attri-
butes. For example, it is possible to estimate the probability of citations
of a country by a respective report, dependent on both countries’
Table 6.1 ERGM model for homophily within regional and culture clusters
Model
(1) (2)
Edges −3.624 ***
−5.458***
b2factor East Asia 0.450*** 0.556***
b2factor Eastern Europe 0.077*** −0.715***
b2factor Europe 1.950*** 1.715***
b2factor Latin America 1.181*** 0.527***
b2factor Western Asia 0.590*** 0.743***
b2factor Western Europe 0.289 0.414**
b2factor Western offshoots 0.519 −0.017
Nodemix OECD 0-1 3.692*** 3.242***
Homophily OECD 4.207*** 3.862***
Homophily Africa 0.197*** 0.209***
Homophily East Asia 0.270*** 0.282***
Homophily Eastern Europe 0.207*** 0.250***
Homophily Europe 0.645 0.880**
Homophily Latin America 0.169*** 0.220***
Homophily Western Asia 0.389 0.345***
Homophily Western Europe 0.247 0.233***
Homophily Western offshoots −0.222 1.871***
2-star culture 0.522***
3-star culture −0.093***
4-star culture 0.008***
Nodemix culture 1-1 1.127***
(continued)
180 H. Seitzer
Table 6.1 (continued)

Model
(1) (2)
Nodemix culture 4-4 0.983
Nodemix culture 5-4 1.768
Akaike Inf. Crit. 6270.791 5716.667
Bayesian Inf. Crit 6395.675 6001.125
Note: *p < 0.1; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01
(referencing and cited) membership status in the OECD. This shows if

non-OECD members are more likely to be informed of OECD mem-
bers’ education system practices than other non-OECD members.
The coefficients are untransformed; they therefore represent the log
odds of tie formation. In the present model, I included the Maddison’s
World Regions as described above, to estimate the likelihood of being
cited given a countries’ geographical location. Then, I estimate the
impact of OECD and non-OECD membership on referencing and
finally include five cultural clusters, derived from the ‘cultural spheres’
network from 1962 described in Chap. 2. Cluster 1 of the cultural
spheres comprises mostly WEIRD countries,5 cluster 2 Spanish-Catholic6
countries, cluster 3 Eastern European7 countries, and cluster 4
Predominantly Muslim8 countries while cluster 5 includes mostly African,
not predominantly Muslim9 countries. The second model shows a slightly
5
1: WEIRD: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bangladesh, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark,
England, Finland, Fiji, France, United Kingdom, India, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Nigeria, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore,
Sweden, United States, Wales.
6
2: Spanish-Catholic: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Paraguay,
Uruguay, Venezuela.
7
3: Eastern European: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Belarus, China, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia,
Georgia, Greece, Croatia, Haiti, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova,
North Macedonia, Montenegro, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Thailand, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yugoslavia.
8
4: Predominantly Muslim: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Indonesia,
Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Cambodia, South Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Malaysia, Niger,
Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Senegal, Somalia, Syria, Chad, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen.
9
5: African, not predominantly Muslim: Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Laos,
Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa,
Zimbabwe.
better model fit, controlling for culture clusters seems to enhance the
model fit and provide more information than only controlling for geo-
graphical region.
The first effect of the model (edge) simply describes the log odds of tie
formation. The following b2factor effects of the table describe the log
odds of being referenced, based on the network attribute (here the World
Regions, as described earlier) in contrast to the reference category Africa.
All effects are positive, except for Eastern Europe in model 2, with coun-
tries from Europe showing the highest coefficients. European countries
are referenced more often than countries from all other regions, making
it somewhat a ‘reference-region’. Latin America has a surprisingly large
coefficient in model 1 as well. However, there seems to be a cultural com-
ponent: When including controlling for the culture cluster as seen in
model 2, the effect of being located in Latin America on the frequency of
being cited reduces. This indicates that the culture, or belonging to a
specific culture cluster influences the citation frequency as well.
Nodemix terms describe the log odds of a tie between a report and a
referenced country based on the given node attributes. OECD members
are coded with 1, non-members with 0. As expected, there are more
reports on non-OECD member countries citing OECD member coun-
tries more often, since there are more reports on OECD-members then
there are reports on non-OECD-Members.
The differential homophily effect describes the log odds of ties from a
report to a reference country, if both countries have the same attribute
level. The homophily effect for (only) OECD countries confirms the
assumption that OECD countries are being used as reference countries
more often than non-member states.
For all World Regions, the differential homophily effect is surprisingly
small but positive. Consequently, there is a tendency for citations to
countries within the same World Region as the country of the report.
These effects are larger for Europe, Western Asia, but especially Western
Offshoots in model 2 compared to the other regions, illustrating that refer-
ence countries are more likely to be within the same World Region as the
country that is receiving the recommendation.
The in-star effects describe the log odds of having between two and
four incoming ties from the same culture cluster. The log odds of two
incoming ties from the same culture cluster are positive, describing a
182 H. Seitzer
greater probability of two incoming ties from the same culture cluster
than from other culture clusters. The three in-stars effect is negative,
meaning there are less chances of three references forming the same cul-
ture cluster. Overall, the effects are relatively small.
The last effects describe the log odds of ties between reports and refer-
ences from the denoted culture cluster. Here it is especially interesting,
how the overall effect sizes are distributed. Citations to countries in clus-
ter 5 are the reference category here. References to countries in culture
cluster 1 (WEIRD) are generally relatively prevalent, the effects are sig-
nificant, positive, and relatively large. Especially in reports from cluster 2,
cluster 4, and cluster 5 (Spanish-Catholic, Predominantly Muslim: Turkey,
Egypt, Albania, but also South Korea and African, non-Muslim countries).
Cluster 2, Spanish-Catholic countries, tends to be cited from reports on
countries in the same cluster most often than from reports on countries
in other clusters. Cluster 3, Easter European, hosts popular reference
countries as well, especially from cluster 2 and cluster 4.
These results are in line with the earlier results, showing that there is a
tendency for referencing within the same cultural as well as geographical
region. In addition, there is a strong preference for references to WEIRD
or European countries.
In summary, first, the regional pattern from Fig. 6.2 seems to express
positive homophily effects for World Regions, there is a tendency for
references within the same region—especially for the Western Offshoots
but also for Europe and Western Asia. Second, European countries are the
most referenced. Additionally, OECD countries are referenced more
than non-member states. Third, culture seems to matter in these refer-
ence patterns. Cluster 2, WEIRD, and cluster 3 Eastern Europe are refer-
enced the most in reports from other culture clusters. Cluster 2,
Spanish-Catholic, has the highest effect for within-cluster citations. Some
cultural and geographical regions are, therefore, more prone to receive
recommendations based on the countries’ culture and location, while
others receive recommendations in line with a ‘global model’ without the
preference for regional examples.
Therefore, one cannot assume the OECD has one ‘model education
system’ or one poster-child after which all recommendations are mod-
eled; instead, there seems to be an awareness within the organization that
countries are suitable as reference societies to the countries receiving the

recommendation. Despite general perceptions, it is safe to say there is no
‘one global model’ of an education system. However, there is a preference
for countries mostly located in Europe, warranting the criticism of schol-
ars that the OECD is driving toward a ‘western European’ model of
education.
Conclusion
In this chapter, I analyzed OECD country reports on education against
the backdrop of the criticism that the OECD fosters and spreads a
Western model of education. European countries are used as examples
for system structures elsewhere in the world. The results indicate a higher
frequency of references to European countries as opposed to non-
European countries. However, it must be taken into account that OECD
member countries are mostly located in Europe, and a higher number of
reports are accordingly commissioned by these countries. Nevertheless,
there is a surprisingly unclear pattern of references. To gain a better
understanding of the rather confusing pattern, regional clusters were
included and later cultural clusters. This revealed an increased preference
for regional references in addition to a high number of references to
European countries, though mainly Finland and Germany. The
Westernization of education is just as much a Finlandization, a
Europeanization, or even a ‘localization’ of education policy. Referencing
geographically close countries seems to be just as important as referenc-
ing the best performing systems, such as Finland. However, Finland’s
success with PISA might be easily referenced as an example without clear
indication what aspects of the Finnish education system are to be used.
Instead, this could be a projection for success of an education system,
making the reference to Finland more a reference to success than to a
specific education system characteristic.
While the reference patterns have no clear central nodes, there are
indeed ‘favorites’: European OECD-members. This is not surprising, as
there may be more information available, but it warrants the warning
that the OECDs’ recommendations are leaning toward a Western,
184 H. Seitzer
European model of education. Interesting to note is the referencing pref-

erence between the regions: Some regions such as Europe, Western Asia,
and the Western Offshoots seem to prefer references to regionally close
countries, while others such as Latin America or Eastern Asia do not.
Culture seems to matter within this pattern as well. Aside from the pref-
erence for the countries in the WEIRD cluster, it is less clear which coun-
tries are most referenced. These results confirm Western or European
countries are referenced the most from their own geographical or cultural
region as well as from other countries.
While there are similar institutional structures of education systems
around the world, the results of this study imply that these standards and
norms might travel differently than the way often portrayed. The stan-
dardization of education, even though ‘Western-oriented’, is much more
dependent on the geographical closeness of countries. When studying the
path of education policy diffusion, new insights might arise in the con-
text of geographically, religiously, linguistically, or ethnically similar
countries as well as those that are historically tied to one another. The
diffusion chain of policy borrowing but especially of referencing might be
much shorter than expected. In addition, this observation supports the
idea of externalization in the sense of Luhmann’s self-referential systems
(Luhmann 1990) as opposed to the acceptance of a global model in world
society’s terms (Meyer et al. 1997). PISA might be a global comparison of
decontextualized student achievement but the comparison of actual poli-
cies by the OECD might be much more oriented toward closely related
countries. Especially upon closer inspection of the first graph on refer-
ences, it seems more intuitive that geographically close countries are tied
more closely, as most of them share similar institutional and cultural
traits. Externalizations in the form of references between those countries
are therefore much easier to understand. And while Finland is without a
doubt the OECD’s poster child, given that it holds the highest number
of references across all time, it is not the only country with a consistently
high number of references. Since the homogenization of education sys-
tems is not a latent idea but rather reality, a common model is still being
circulated, though it might be diffusing along different pathways than
initially anticipated. To understand the regionally dependent preference
for regional citations, even in reports published by a transnational
organization, it might be worth including more factors into the analysis

such as openness or cultural traits.
Furthermore, it might be important for upcoming research on the dif-
fusion of education policy, but also on the OECD, to consider regional
influences instead of focusing solely on global influences of the OECD. In
addition, inspecting reference societies not through the OECD’s lens but
through country reports or policy papers from other sources might reveal
different results. It is also worthy to note, that the overall notion of the
OECD’s influence on a global model of education is not as strong as
expected. The regional recommendation pattern from the OECD war-
rants a closer look into the diffusion of policies, as this might provide
insights into the pathways of these policies instead of assuming a global
influence through a world society.
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right holder.
7
International Organizations
and Education in the Islamic World
David Krogmann
Introduction1
As education policy evolves into an increasingly internationalized field,
the impact of international organizations (IOs) on national education
policies is becoming more and more relevant. While research has been
concerned with some of the more influential organizations in education
policy, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), other IOs have largely flown under the radar.
There are a number of education IOs of predominantly Muslim member
1
SFB 1342.
D. Krogmann (*)

192 D. Krogmann
states that have not been reviewed systematically in almost 40 years of

their existence. This chapter maps the existing education organizations in
the Muslim world. The analysis presented here revolves around two main
questions. First, which organizations consisting of predominantly Muslim
member states are active in the field of international education policy,
and how, if at all, do they cooperate? Second, which education leitmotifs
and ideas do these organizations promote, what kind of discourse do they
construct around education policy, and are aspects of it crucial for a par-
ticular ‘cultural sphere’ as defined in the introduction to this volume?
In answering these questions, this chapter also provides insights into
existing discourses within a particular ‘cultural sphere’ proliferated by
international organizations and how they are constructed as alternatives
to or even contradictions against globally dominant discourses of educa-
tion policy. It does so by focusing on the content of these discourses,
rather than the mechanisms and power structures along which they are
constructed. Using qualitative content analysis, this chapter explores the
themes and ideas underlying the various activities of Muslim education
IOs. For this purpose, the most relevant among Muslim education IOs
are the Islamic World Education, Science and Culture Organization
(ICESCO, formerly known as Islamic Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization (ISESCO)),2 a branch of the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League Cultural, Educational, and
Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the Arab Bureau of Education
for the Gulf States (ABEGS).
These three organizations are largely comprised of states with predomi-
nantly Muslim citizens and make frequent references to Islam in both
their official statements and their publications. They also occasionally
cooperate with each other, and there is a significant overlap in their
membership. More precisely, all member states of the ABEGS are also
members of the ALECSO, all of which are in turn members of ICESCO. In
this chapter, I therefore refer to them as Muslim or Islamic education
IOs, borrowing from Wayne Nelles’ term “Islamic multilateral
2
In 2020, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was renamed Islamic
World Education Science and Culture Organization. As all documents reviewed in this chapter
have been published before 2020, they will be referenced using ICESCO’s former denomina-
tion ISESCO.
7 International Organizations and Education in the Islamic World 193
institutions” (Nelles 2006). Special attention will be given to the ICESCO

since it is the largest Muslim education IO. As such, it enjoys a unique
status, not least because it explicitly promotes the religious dimension of
education. The frequent references to religion, which informs both
ICESCO’s goals and the means it chooses to achieve them, separate the
organization from its more universally oriented counterparts. Whereas
organizations like the UN agencies are secular by nature, ICESCO is
distinctly nonsecular.
Following a few remarks about the existing literature on Muslim inter-
national organizations in the next section, this chapter will first briefly
introduce leitmotifs and ideas in education policy. It will then examine
data generated from publications produced by the ICESCO, the
ALECSO, and the ABEGS, presenting recurring themes found in these
documents. The analysis will assess the proclaimed goals of the organiza-
tions for education policy, as well as their means of choice to achieve
them, both of which are assumed to be informed by underlying ideas on
how education should be conceptualized. After giving some space to the
discussion of the results, the chapter concludes with a brief outlook on
the challenges for further research in this field.
The analysis finds that Muslim education IOs participate in a distinct
discourse that revolves around the synthesis of traditional values drawn
from Islamic philosophy and the demands of a modern global labor mar-
ket. Furthermore, it calls into question the effectiveness of said organiza-
tions in resolving the assumed conflict between traditional Muslim
education and a “Westernized” world, as Muslim education IOs face
shortages in budget and staff.
ontextualizing Education Leitmotifs

C
in Muslim IOs
A large part of the motivation for this chapter stems from the fact that we
know almost nothing about Muslim education IOs, despite them being
around for more than four decades. Literature on these organizations is
exceptionally limited, adding some weight to Wayne Nelles’ claim that
194 D. Krogmann
“the international community as a whole has not well analyzed, engaged

with, or understood Islamic multilateral institutions” (Nelles 2006, 123).
Nevertheless, three basic points have been made by scholars in regard
to the organizations examined here. Firstly, being one of the few scholars
to have published on Islamic IOs, Nelles notes that most of them share a
“profound concern” in regard to their cultural identity, namely, that
Western culture, as well as globalization, puts serious pressure on many
Islamic countries wanting to preserve their cultural and spiritual roots
(Nelles 2006), something that many Westerners have “never come to
terms with” (Nelles 2006, 122). Currie-Alder (2019) argues that strength-
ening the common cultural identity among Muslim countries has been
one of the key motivations behind the foundation of various multilateral
organizations in the Muslim world. Baghdady discusses the fundamental
conflicts between the values proliferated by Western models of education
and what he calls “Arab and Islamic cultures” (Baghdady 2019, 257),
arguing that some Muslim-majority states have been resistant to accept
foreign cultural norms and objectives in education. Secondly, connected
to this conflict, spiritual development or self-refinement seems to be a
much more important educational objective for many Muslim countries,
especially in the Arab world, than for many Western countries, when
compared for example with individual prosperity or economic growth
(Findlow 2008). This is not to say that economic growth, skilled human
capital, and other economic objectives of education policy are irrelevant
for the organizations covered here. Rather, previous comparative work on
national education policy in the Gulf region suggests strategical and situ-
ational “re-drawing of structures, priorities, collectivities and paradigms”
as the main feature of education policy (Findlow and Hayes 2016, 125).
Some nations, at least in the Gulf region, tend to use international input
in education strategically to reach their economic goals (Hayes and
Al’Abri 2019). Finally, Muslim education IOs do not enjoy the same level
of trust as, say, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) or the OECD. For example, Kayaoglu finds
that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and, by proxy,
ICESCO, is often viewed as “inefficient, weak, and useless, and thus a
disservice to Muslims” (Kayaoglu 2015, 3).
These points, while scarce, set a few expectations for the analysis. It is
especially interesting that the findings provided in this chapter fit well
with the arguments made by Nelles and Findlow. Moreover, my findings
are in line with the idea that discourses on education policy comprise
aspects related to the reproduction of culture within the respective ‘cul-
tural sphere’: It seems that, indeed, cultural identity and spiritual refine-
ment rank a lot higher on the Muslim education IOs’ agenda than in
other regional organizations.
A large part of the following analysis is concerned with leitmotifs in
education policy. Therefore, it is necessary to elaborate on what a leitmo-
tif is, which types of leitmotifs we find in education policy, and why they
matter. A leitmotif is, defined in the simplest way, a dominant recurring
theme in a given medium. Leitmotifs are constituted by a set of different
ideas about education policy. I rely on Goldstein’s and Keohane’s defini-
tion, according to which an idea is simply a “belief held by individuals”
(Goldstein and Keohane 1993, 3). For my purpose, this definition will be
expanded to include not only beliefs held by individuals but also those
held by IOs. Leitmotifs and ideas inform and guide education policy.
They provide the framework for more specific goals that the Muslim edu-
cation IOs might propose. How IOs frame education when they partici-
pate in discourse on specific education policy tells us how they think
about education in general, which in turn informs their aims. This is
important because for most education IOs, education is not a goal in
itself but a means to an end (Martens and Niemann 2013). For example,
an IO might pursue better learning outcomes to increase people’s ability
to participate in society, or to enhance their competitiveness in the labor
market. As outlined in the introduction to this volume (Chap. 1; Nagel
et al. 2010), this chapter differentiates between economic utilitarianism
as well as social cohesion on an individual and collective level as the four
main categories or leitmotifs under which education ideas can be sub-
sumed. For the analysis of ICESCO, and to a lesser extent, ABEGS and
ALECSO, a certain distinction or uniqueness can be expected in their
education ideas. This is because the primary connection among ICESCOs
member states is religious orientation, implying that both the social and
the economic purposes of education policy may be adapted or expanded
to include cultural-religious ideas.
196 D. Krogmann
Much of what is presented below depends on qualitative content anal-

ysis of documents published by the examined organizations. Qualitative
content analysis is the process of deducing meaning from the analysis of
documented conversation of any kind (Schreier 2014). Three main crite-
ria have been applied when selecting the documents, namely, relevance,
availability, and time of publication. For my purpose, the most relevant
documents are those that have a strategic component, that is, that set a
more general vision on what the organization’s education policy aims to
achieve. This is because generally these documents clearly state their per-
ceived purpose of education, rendering the analysis straightforward.
Examples for relevant documents include strategic plans for the future,
handbooks on education policy, or the charters of the IOs. Unfortunately,
availability of documents is a huge concern when dealing with smaller
IOs like the three cases presented here. Especially in the cases of ABEGS
and ALECSO, the number of documents publicly available in English is
limited. Therefore, any document excluded from the analysis has an
immediate trade-off resulting in a smaller (and possibly insufficient)
database. This means that one cannot apply criteria for relevant docu-
ments too rigorously when dealing with these organizations. In total, 26
publications have been examined for this chapter. The documents have
been coded along the dimensions laid out in the theoretical framework
using the qualitative analysis software MAXQDA. Altogether, 550 data
points provide the basis for the following analysis.
imilar, Yet Unique: Three Muslim

S
Education IOs
The organizations covered in this chapter have a limited presence in the
global public and academic discourse on education IOs. Thus, it seems
adequate to preface the analysis with a general outline of the ICESCO,
the ALECSO, and the ABEGS. I briefly introduce these three organiza-
tions and provide an overview on how the organizations are set up, what
their goals are, and what they do to reach them. Note that the ICESCO
and the ALECSO are not exclusively tasked with education policy.
Therefore, their charters and statutes encompass several goals in other

policy fields, which are irrelevant for my purpose and only included if
they provide insights into the organizational leitmotifs.
ICESCO: Education Policy for the Ummah
The Islamic World Education, Science, and Culture Organization, for-

merly known as Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization, is perhaps the most relevant Muslim education
IO. Established by the member states of the OIC in May 1981 and offi-
cially founded in 1982, its membership has expanded from 28 founding
members at the constituent conference to 54 member states today. As an
official branch of the OIC, only OIC members can join the organization.
ICESCO is comprised of states from all over the world with varying sizes
and capabilities as well as resources. The Union of International
Associations (UIA) classifies the ICESCO as an “intercontinental mem-
bership organization” (UIA 2019a), which means that its “membership
exceeds that of a particular continental region, covers at least 10 coun-
tries, and is equitably distributed over at least two continents” (UIA
2019b). As such, ICESCO is a very diverse organization in terms of the
regional origin of its members. Most of its member states are situated in
Africa and the Middle East, but there are exceptions like the Republic of
Indonesia (joined in 1986) or the Republic of Guyana (joined in 2014).
Interestingly, a number of states in the ICESCO only have a minor share
of Muslim citizens, such as the Republic of Togo (est. 14% Muslim
population3).
Goals in Education Policy
The ICESCO’s 2017 strategy paper “Development of Education in the

Islamic World” outlines its current objectives for education policy. These
objectives are based on perceived challenges that the ICESCO members
face in today’s world. According to the organization, the “major
3
CIA World Factbook (2010): Togo.
198 D. Krogmann
shortcomings in the education system of the Islamic World” (ISESCO

2017b, 29) include high illiteracy rates of up to 70% in some member
states, poverty and huge income inequality, as well as great imparity in
education between genders. In addition to these general problems, the
ICESCO also identifies a number of more specific problems with educa-
tion policy in many of its member states, such as deficient educational
curricula, poor teacher training, insufficient spending on education, and
low enrolment rates in all stages of the educational system (ISESCO
2017b, 30). Based on its perception of these problems, the ICESCO
proposes some major objectives for education policy, which correspond
to earlier publications (ISESCO 2014, 2016a) and to the charter of the
organization (ISESCO 2015a). The societal objectives of the ICESCO
for education are to
contribute to the development of educational systems […] to build peace-

ful, knowledge-based and prosperous societies (ISESCO 2017b, 7), and to
ensure the transition of Muslims from being dependent and passive con-
sumers to being active international role players, developers and producers
of knowledge in such a way as to allow the Islamic world to regain its lead-
ing role in building human civilization. (ISESCO 2017b, 7)
These statements also illustrate the difference between an objective and

a leitmotif, in that the first part of the sentence represents the objective
(e.g. “contribute to the development of educational systems”) and the
second part describes the purpose behind the objective (e.g. “to build
peaceful and prosperous societies”).
Furthermore, there is also an economic component in the educational
objectives of the ICESCO. Education is supposed to not only create a
knowledge-based society, but also help alleviate poverty and enable eco-
nomic development of the member states. The summary of the ICESCO’s
proclaimed educational objectives is worth quoting in almost its full
length here, since it is quite encompassing:
The objective is to reshape the roles of education in achieving sustainable

development and facing present and future developments and require-
ments, … enabling Islamic countries to engage in knowledge societies and
contribute to knowledge production, thereby marking its presence in the

writing of humanity’s cultural history in its new form. (ISESCO 2017b, 13)
Thus, the ICESCO’s educational objectives have both a social and an

economic dimension. On the one hand, the economic development of
the member states is only possible if the labor forces of the respective
countries are equipped with adequate skillsets to enable them to partici-
pate in a global labor market. On the other hand, education should also
ensure that Muslims all over ICESCO’s members are aware of their cul-
tural roots and their responsibility for a cohesive and peaceful knowledge-
based society. However, the distinction between goal and education ideas
becomes blurry in statements that highlight the cultural roots and reli-
gious tradition and at the same time proclaim the Islamic world’s ambi-
tion to regain a leading role in human civilization and to participate in
the writing of humans’ cultural history. Proclaiming a particular kind of
individual whose religiously influenced culture thrives toward a leading
role in human civilization is an example of the importance of cultural
spheres in global educational discourses. The objectives reflect the general
ideas of the organization within the founding charter, which has been
amended a number of times since its inception in 1982. The next chapter
deals with them in detail.
Leitmotifs and Education Ideas of ICESCO
The ICESCO, like most education IOs, treats education as a multi-

purpose endeavor. In this view, education is crucial for skill formation,
self-fulfillment, collective wealth, and the proliferation of collective social
rights and duties. At the same time, the ICESCO has a clear focus, mean-
ing that some education ideas are more important than others. In gen-
eral, the ICESCO recognizes that education is an important tool for
economic development on both the individual and the collective level.
On the other hand, education has a significant social, especially cultural
and religious element. While the economic element is, at times, clearly
visible in the analyzed documents, the cultural and religious focus is what
makes the organization unique among education IOs with a global reach.
200 D. Krogmann
The ICESCO believes that an education policy that is suitable for the
international Muslim community (the “Ummah”) in general and its
member states specifically has to be mindful of and informed by Islam
and Islamic values. The significance of Islam for the organization’s pol-
icy is made clear from the very first sentence of its charter, which states
that Islam is “a religion of peace and tolerance, represents a way of life
and a spiritual, human, moral, cultural and civilizational force” (Charter
of the ICESCO, Preamble). Thus, if ICESCO is to successfully achieve
its educational objectives, they have to be rooted “within the frame-
work of the civilizational reference of the Islamic world and in the light
of the human Islamic values and ideals” (Charter of the ICESCO, Art
4 (a)). Looking up to Western education systems as the singular source
of inspiration for reforms in the Islamic world is counterproductive,
according to ICESCO, because they are “alien to its cultural and civili-
zational references and incompatible with its socioeconomic context”
(ISESCO 2017b, 16).
This sentiment can be found in every document published by
ICESCO. Frequent references to religion are made in all reviewed docu-
ments, for example:
ISESCO hopes that this book will be yet another tool needed in enhancing
the level of education in the Muslim world, … within the framework of
Islamic values that spur the Ummah to achieve greater civilizational prog-
ress and advancement. (ISESCO 2002, 6)
This [document] has been developed in accordance with the specific needs
of Muslim communities and in line with Islamic teachings which regard
education and learning (pursuit of knowledge) as an obligation for each
Muslim. (ISESCO 2016b, 7)
[ISESCO aims to] preserve and enhance our common Islamic heritage to
increase the awareness of the Muslim Youth of the values of Islam.
(ISESCO 2005, 2)
The relationship between Islam and ICESCOs education policy is two-

fold. First, as noted before, its education objectives have to be mindful of
Islamic culture and heritage; otherwise they cannot be achieved within

the Ummah, because Islam is not only a religion, but “represents a way of
life” (see above). Second, Islam also informs the education leitmotifs of
ICESCO, since it provides a sense of what the ideal society to be achieved
via quality education looks like, as well as an own legal system with the
Sharia. Of course, not all member states of ICESCO refer to Sharia law
in their legal systems. ICESCO, however, frequently does (see, e.g.
ISESCO 2009, 2). The prominent role of Islam results in a vision of edu-
cation focusing on spiritual self-refinement, collective norms, and duties
drawn from a common cultural and religious background shared by all
ICESCO member states.
This vision is further illustrated by a certain sense of a larger-than-life
“Islamic civilization”. While the notion of Islamic civilization is already
present in the Charter, it is more explicit in later publications. The 2009
Khartoum declaration states the “renewed commitment and strength-
ened resolve” of ICESCO to “preserve and enhance the common Islamic
heritage to increase the awareness of the Muslim children and adolescents
of the values of Islam, and instill into them a sense of pride in the achieve-
ments of the glorious Islamic civilization” (ISESCO 2009, 2). Other
documents stress the need to “allow the Islamic world to regain its lead-
ing role in building human civilization and spreading good and peace
among humankind” (ISESCO 2017b, 7) and to “consolidate the civiliza-
tional identity of the Muslim world” (ISESCO 2017b, 25).
Second to spiritual refinement and collective religious participation,
there is the leitmotif of economic development through quality educa-
tion. In particular, ICESCO identifies the “need to harness the potential
of human resources in Islamic countries and equip young people with
basic skills for working life and professional integration […] in order to
improve living conditions and economic development” (ISESCO 2017b,
69). However, compared to other global education IOs such as the
OECD and the World Bank (Niemann, this volume), human capital and
economic growth seems to play a relatively small role in the discourse
proliferated by ICESCO. The statement quoted above is in that way not
representative of the general trend. The documents reviewed for this
chapter rarely mention “human resources” or “human capital”. In fact,
the charter of the ICESCO does not refer to economic growth or the
202 D. Krogmann
labor market at all, while the cultural purpose of the organization is very
prominent. Economic growth is mostly presented as part of a larger bun-
dle of educational objectives in ICESCO publications. Interestingly,
ICESCO documents refer mostly to “socio-economic development”
rather than just economic development (ISESCO 2002, 2009, 2017b).
This is not to say that ICESCO does not view economic development
as an important benefit of quality education—it very much does. Rather,
ICESCO attempts a delicate balancing act in “combining deep-rooted
authenticity and enlightened modernity” (ISESCO 2017b, 12). ICESCO
is aware that its member states desperately need improvements in educa-
tion to reap the benefits of globalization and not be marginalized by it.
However, its member states fear that they may lose their identities and
cultural roots over the desperation for better education if they mindlessly
assume Western education models, as many countries around the world
have done (ISESCO 2017b, 16-18). Connected to said fears, the chal-
lenge of globalization is another prominent motif in ICESCO’s publica-
tions. While most IOs recognize that globalization is not only a chance
but also a challenge for many countries, ICESCO seems especially wor-
ried about its impact. ICESCO summarizes the challenge as follows:
Any new educational strategy in the Islamic world has to deal with global-
ization in such a manner as to take advantage of its positive aspects, …
while protecting the Muslim identity against the danger of melting into
another culture in conflict with the religious, intellectual, social, moral and
cultural components of the national Islamic identity. (ISESCO 2017b, 16)
Among the “positives of globalization” anticipated by ICESCO are inter-

cultural dialogue and increased understanding between different coun-
tries and regions of the world, both of which are collective social
undertakings. Mutual respect and understanding through intercultural
dialogue enabled by globalization and modern communication technol-
ogy will contribute to world peace and the advancement of human civi-
lization. In fact, in a globalized world, “positive cross cultural fertilization
and interaction is the only framework under which cultures can prosper”
(ISESCO 2017b: 16). This notion is also reflected in a speech by Dr.
Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, then Director General of ICESCO, held in
2015, in which he noted that “infusing the contents of education curri-

cula, science, culture and the media with then inherent tolerance of reli-
gious values is the right approach to building peace and promoting
dialogue between the followers of religions, cultures and civilizations”
(ISESCO 2015b, 13).
In sum, ICESCO discourse focuses a lot on the social dimensions, at
both the individual and the collective level, while recognizing that there
is a need for economic development. However, economic development is
second to spiritual self-refinement and only needed insofar as it enables
people to lead a good life and alleviate them from poverty.
Activities in Education
Having established the education ideas present in the analyzed publica-

tions, one should expect that these ideas are also reflected in the activities
of ICESCO. ICESCO engages in a number of activities that are some-
what “typical” for large education IOs, such as organizing workshops,
meetings, and conferences with stakeholders in the field, for example, the
member states’ ministers of education. Furthermore, ICESCO activities
include publishing material on education policy, funding local projects,
setting up educational centers, or participating in discourse via social
media. Content-wise, these endeavors cover a wide range of both social
and economic topics. This is especially evident from the workshops that
ICESCO organizes, often in cooperation with other IOs or nongovern-
mental organizations (NGOs). For example, in 2018, ICESCO orga-
nized workshops on “professional methods to counter Islamophobia”, on
“recommendations for the development of a curriculum promoting the
values of peace, harmony and tolerance”, on “The Role of Crafts in
Developing Community-based Economics in the Member States [sic]”
and on “Integrating University and Private Sector Development [sic]”,
among others (OIC 2018). Further workshops include topics as diverse
as environmental impact assessment, the protection of landmarks in
Jerusalem, or financial support for women entrepreneurs in Chad. Most
of these topics clearly reflect the leitmotifs covered above. Additionally,
several workshops and training sessions demonstrate ICESCOs strong
204 D. Krogmann
cultural focus. For example, ICESCO organizes training sessions in “tra-

ditional embroidery with gold and silk for women (Tahrira and Qasab)”
(OIC 2016, 16) or “New Cultural Roles of Civil Society in Promoting
and Disseminating Good Governance Culture”.
Lastly, it is worth noting that ICESCO’s budget also tends to provide
greater financial means to social than to economic measures (ISESCO
2019, 83), although a lot of measures in education policy, such as com-
bating illiteracy, can be read as both an economic as well as a social proj-
ect. While the budgetary items are sometimes ambiguous, there is a
striking difference between the financial means attributed to skills and
vocational education ($450.000) and those attributed to, for example,
“traditional education” ($1.000.000). One interesting finding on
ICESCO’s most recent budget report is the $450.000 reserved for “the
school of values and coexistence” (ISESCO 2019, 83). What ICESCO
means with this illusive term is an education system “that aims to build a
system of values in the minds of children and instill it in their daily
behavior … with respect for human rights, racial and cultural diversity
and coexistence; drawing on the Islamic view that calls for taking care of
the environment, healthy nutrition and human health and rationalize the
use of natural resources endowed to people by Allah” (ISESCO 2019,
73). While this is not a very specific objective, it reinforces the impor-
tance that ICESCO assigns to what it views as the cultural roots of its
member states in traditional Islamic values. In conclusion, this short
analysis of ICESCO’s activities shows that the elements presented above
as ICESCO’s leitmotifs are present in both the organization’s day-to-day
business as well as its budget.
ALECSO: Education for the Arab World
The Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization is a

Tunis-based sub-institution of the League of Arab States. Founded in
1970, ALECSO is comprised of 22 member states today, most of which
are situated in the Maghreb region and the Middle East. Similar to
ICESCO, ALECSO’s main task is the coordination of member state
efforts in the fields of education, science, and culture. Many ALECSO
member states are also member of ICESCO. We can, therefore, reason-

ably expect some similarity between the objectives and ideas of both
institutions, given that they operate in the same fields.
Education Goals
ALECSO’s perception of the challenges its member states are facing is

largely similar to ICESCO. Key internal issues to be tackled are poverty,
illiteracy, and inequality between genders. External challenges are posed
by the danger of the deterioration of traditional values through “Western”
cultural influence, the fierce competition in labor markets through glo-
balization, as well as military threats. This last point seems weirdly out of
place in an education document, as ALECSO refers to the challenge of
“the foreign occupation of Palestine and Iraq, and the Golan Heights
occupied by the Zionist entity, and conspiracies against some of the other
Arab countries” (ALECSO 2008, 39).
According to ALECSO, its main overall objective in reaction to these
various challenges is to promote “intellectual unity in the Arab World,
through education, culture and sciences, and enhancing the level of cul-
ture in order to keep up with, and positively contribute to, universal civi-
lization” (ALECSO 2017, 4). For higher education, this idea has recently
been challenged significantly in national policies of the member states
(Hayes and Al’Abri 2019). It remains to be seen if and how these chal-
lenges will find their way into the discourse produced by ALECSO.
For education policy specifically, ALECSO names an extensive list of
objectives, among which a few stand out (ALECSO 2017, 4). These “key
priorities” are to “guarantee quality education for all as a human right”,
to “provide learners with the tools for the acquisition, analysis, produc-
tion and use of knowledge”, to “strengthen capacities in education-related
policy formulation, planning and management” and finally to “strengthen
the Arab States’ capacities in terms of data collection and use, and moni-
tor best practices and experiences” (ALECSO 2017, 7).
206 D. Krogmann
Leitmotifs and Education Ideas of ALECSO
ALECSO’s education ideas are similar to those found in the published

documents of ICESCO, where we find a “mixed bag” of supposed pur-
poses of education, with an emphasis on societal advancement and both
collective and individual spiritual refinement. On the one hand, ALECSO
is aware of the economic problems of the Arab states. One of ALECSO’s
declared “essential leverage points” (ALECSO 2008, 39) is “enabling the
learner to master the tools of knowledge … and to acquire the skills and
experiences necessary to increase his productivity and enhance his role as
contributor to change and development” (ALECSO 2008, 40), because
“human capital is the critical factor in moving forward to achieve pros-
perity” (ALECSO 2008, 6). This idea is also present almost word for
word in other publications (ALECSO 2017, 7). “Education is the corner
stone in the preparation, training and mobilization of the abilities of
human capital” (ALECSO 2008, 6), and both individual and collective
prosperity heavily depend on education as a driving force and an
enabling system.
On the other hand, we find once again that ALECSO gives special
attention to social purposes of education. ALECSO demands that “the
philosophy of education be changed, so that building the student’s per-
sonality becomes an essential axis in the educational process […]; he can
develop his/her spirit of citizenship and belonging, and be educated in
human rights, tolerance, coexistence and dialogue” (ALECSO 2008, 9).
For the individual, the key social purpose of education must be “develop-
ing the learner’s abilities and meeting his various needs, particularly his
physical and leisure needs, to increase his options for self-achievement”
(ALECSO 2008, 40). This change in philosophy should be based on “the
teachings of True Islam, as well as respect of other cultures and religions,
in accordance with faith and conviction of the right to disagree” (ALECSO
2008, 40). In terms of collective social purposes of education, ALECSO
holds traditional values and norms as essential elements of the curricula
when building a cohesive society. It argues that solidarity and individual
responsibility constitute the basis for the social contract upon which the
member states’ societies are built. Arab societies can only prosper when
their citizens are educated and know their rights and duties as well as the
religious and cultural foundations upon which these are based
(ALECSO 2008).
Lastly, there is a sense of regional identity that is supposed to be prolif-
erated and strengthened by education policy, the concept of Pan-Arabism.
Pan-Arabism implies a certain cultural uniformity shared by Arab people
in the Middle East and the Maghreb region, which should also be reflected
in the state system of these regions. Born over a century ago out of senti-
ments against British and French rule in the region, Pan-Arabism is anti-
colonial at its core and therefore emphasizes Arab autonomy (Reiser
1983). The specific expression of Pan-Arabism ranges from intergovern-
mental cooperation to calls for a united Arab nation. Indeed, Pan-
Arabism lies at the roots of the foundation of the Arab League itself. For
ALECSO education policy, this idea means that education has an addi-
tional purpose—“the purpose being to strengthen the pan-Arab [sic!]
sense of belonging and feeling” (ALECSO 2008, 40). Quality education
must provide a sense of regional identity so that Arab citizens have a
point of reference. This goes hand-in-hand with “increasing awareness of
the major Arab issues” (ALECSO 2008, 40). It is interesting to see this
idea spelled out explicitly because of the heavy implications that the term
carries. One could interpret this as an added emphasis on the importance
of Arab identity for ALECSO’s education ideas.
ALECSO, as an education IO, seems to follow a rather hands-off

approach to pursuing its objectives. Compared to ICESCO, which
actively intervenes in education policy with its own projects, such as
workshops and training sessions that it hosts, ALECSO is focused on
spreading awareness. ALECSO focuses on problems regarding education
policy in member states, where it collects data, provides information to
policymakers, and offers a platform of coordination. Indeed, ALECSO’s
declared code of conduct is to serve “as a house of expertise in the Arab
World in all that relates to education, culture, science and communica-
tion” (ALECSO 2017, 10). The most important branch of ALECSO in
208 D. Krogmann
this regard is the ALECSO Observatory, which was created as part of the
Plan to Develop Education in the Arab World (2008). This institution is
largely in charge of ALECSO’s education policy research. It monitors the
state of education in the Arab world, provides advice to policymakers,
collects best practices, gathers and organizes data, and publishes a vast
body of literature. The organization has, for example, published eight
bulletins and reports on the general state of education, nine books and
manuals relating to Arabic language education, a 24-part encyclopedia
on great Arabic writers as well as roughly 30 books with synchronized
learning material for Arab schools (ALECSO 2017). Furthermore, the
organization publishes various bi-annual journals on education.
ABEGS: Education Policy for the Gulf Region
The Arab Bureau for Education in the Gulf States was set up in 1975 by
seven member states from the gulf region, namely, Saudi Arabia, Yemen,
Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar. All of
these states are also members of the ALECSO and the ICESCO. ABEGS’s
raison d’être is similar in nature to ALECSO and, to a lesser extent,
ICESCO. As per ABEGS’s website, its task is to “promote cooperation
and coordination in the fields of culture, education, science, information
and documentation” (ABEGS 2019a), which is almost congruent with
ALECSO’s mission, albeit with a narrower regional focus.
Education Goals
ABEGS has published a number of comprehensive strategic goals along

which it operates. The four key aims are, without any particular order,
“developing the younger generations to promote citizenship values,
developing educational policies and spreading the best practices, develop-
ing the Arabic language and the learning of it, as well as consolidating the
roles of family and society in education” (ABEGS 2019a). These aims go
hand-in-hand with ABEGS’ mission, which the organization summarizes
as “coordination of education development operations to reflect the
Islamic nature of the region, to promote unity among its citizens and set
educational plans based on modern scientific foundations” (ABEGS
2019b, 9).
Leitmotifs and Education Ideas of ABEGS
The above quote points to further similarities between ABEGS and the
two other Muslim education IOs. On the one hand, the religious and
cultural heritage of the region provides an important foundation without
which a proper education system for the Gulf states cannot be realized.
On the other hand, educational plans for the future should be based on
“modern scientific foundations”. This statement implies that ABEGS is
well aware of the balancing act that it is tasked with—the synthesis of
traditional values drawn from Islamic philosophy and the demands of
economic development in a global labor market.
For the individual, quality education should entail that “young people
can acquire behaviors which help them uphold their rights and duties as
citizens, be in touch with their countries internal issues, while remaining
positively open to up-to-date information in various fields, utilizing this
information to help themselves and develop their countries” (ABEGS
2015, 52). Once more, there is a focus on social rights and duties for
individuals. Interestingly, a shared declaration of the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) and ABEGS, the Sharm El Sheik Statement
from 2015, puts the focus on sustainable development and prosperity,
where social cohesion comes as second priority:
We reaffirm that it [education] is a basis for the realization of other rights

and essential for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development, as well
as prosperity in the Arab states. … We notably commit to the principle of
education as a public good and a building block for prosperity, well-being,
social cohesion and sustainable development. (UNESCO 2015, 1)
ABEGS’s education ideas are thus a bit more balanced between social
and economic concerns.
210 D. Krogmann
The ABEGS Strategy 2015–2020 lists 23 initiatives with 92 individual

projects to be implemented until the year 2020. Among these are semi-
nars, training sessions for stakeholders, the organization of regular coor-
dination meetings, and a large number of publications. In fact, ABEGS
claims to have published “hundreds of books and translations in various
educational, scientific and cultural areas”, which lead to its publications
receiving “considerable interest and growing appreciation among people
as valuable resource of educational Arab thought” (ABEGS 2019b, 29).
Cooperation Between the Three Organizations

Given the similarity of ABEGS, ICESCO, and ALECSO, both in terms
of education ideas and member states, cooperation between the organiza-
tions is expected to a certain degree. Indeed, the organizations claim to
cooperate on a lot of issues. In an attempt to institutionalize said coop-
eration, ICESCO has hosted a series of meetings between the three IOs.
Most recently, they met in Rabat in 2017 at the 4th Forum of International
Organizations. ICESCO Director General Dr. Altwaijri noted in his
respective opening speech that “we must increase synergy and enhance
cooperation between ICESCO, ALECSO and ABEGS” and that “the
steadily growing scope of cooperation …, and the rising trend of our
accumulated expertise and accomplishments are proof that we are on the
right track” (ISESCO 2017a, 2).
While these statements point to the existence of cooperation, it remains
obscure which specific forms coordinated efforts by the three organiza-
tions assume. In other words, it is clear that ICESCO, ALECSO, and
ABEGS do cooperate with each other, but less clear how they do so. Both
of the most recent progress reports published by the OIC (2016, 2018),
which thoroughly track ICESCO activities, do not mention joint action
with ABEGS or ALECSO, and neither do ICESCO’s tri-annual newslet-
ters. Without further evidence, it seems that cooperation between the
three organizations is more rudimentary than the statement above
implies. To add to that observation, cooperation between but also within

these organizations might be hindered by conflicts between the member
states. Given the religious differences between some of the larger member
states as well as their economic competition induced by geographical
proximity, conflicts occur quite often. As Kayaoglu notes, “one can con-
clude that even fairly minor coordination issues can become extremely
complicated when they involve differences in religious interpretation.
ICESCO, like the OIC, is not strong enough to override the objection of
a powerful member state in the name of the collective good” (Kayaoglu
2015, 125).
Conclusion
The key findings from the analysis presented above can be summarized as
follows. Firstly, ICESCO, ALECSO, and, to a lesser degree, ABEGS are
quite clear in their emphasis on social purposes of education over eco-
nomic ones, confirming expectations set by the literature (Findlow 2008).
At the same time, all three organizations are aware of their member states’
need for quality development policies, which education is a large part of.
Secondly, there is a distinct cultural and/or religious element in the edu-
cation ideas of the Islamic education IOs, which manifests itself in the
references made to Islam and to a larger-than-life Islamic civilization.
This means, thirdly, that Islamic education IOs engage in a balancing act
quite similar to the Southeast Asian case presented elsewhere in this vol-
ume (Chap. 8). On the one hand, global labor markets require standard-
ized education in order to be tapped into. On the other hand,
“Westernized” education may be detrimental to the proliferation of tra-
ditional cultural-religious roots that the Islamic education IOs are com-
mitted to protect. This is challenging because global education policy is
often secularized, while ICESCO is clearly not a secular organization.
That is also what makes ICESCO a special case among global education
IOs, in that most other global IOs are distinctly secular.
Indeed, the Islamic education IOs face a number of challenges that
may seriously hinder their effectiveness in carrying out their designated
missions. Differences in religious interpretations between Shia and Sunni
212 D. Krogmann
countries respectively are an obvious example. As ICESCO, for example,

commits itself to “publicizing the correct image of Islam”, it remains
unclear what “true Islam” constitutes. For ICESCO, this is further com-
plicated by geopolitical tensions between large member states, such as
Saudi-Arabia and Iran. Its relatively small budget only adds to these
problems.
In sum, this chapter has undertaken a first mapping of Muslim inter-
national organizations in education policy. I have argued that Muslim
education IOs engage in the production and reproduction of their own
distinct ideas on how education should be conceived of, thereby, attempt-
ing a synthesis of traditional cultural and religious values drawn from
Islamic philosophy and quality education for development purposes.
Going forward, there remains a lot of potential for further research to
expand upon these findings, especially since the analysis relied on a rather
limited number of available documents for the ABEGS and the
ALECSO. While it may be too early for a final verdict, the evidence hints
at a connection between the globalization of education policy and the
emergence of competing regional-cultural ideals of education. In a glo-
balized world, some regional organizations may feel the need to protect
their cultural roots against “Westernization” of education systems, possi-
bly forming countermovements against global education IOs. While
Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations has been received very poorly
in Western International Relations, and understandably so; a more subtle
mechanism of a similar kind could be at play here. Some form of contra-
diction in their approaches toward education policy seems to exist
between the different “civilizations” in the perception of the organiza-
tions reviewed here, as elusive and broad as this term may be. To acknowl-
edge the fuzzy boundaries between different global cultures, Windzio and
Martens (Chap. 1) introduce the concept of “cultural spheres” and
Besche-Truthe et al. (Chap. 2) propose an appropriate methodology that
accounts for this fuzziness in diffusion analyses. Is this a conflict between
the regional and the global, or do these cultural spheres just indicate cul-
tural difference, but coexistence, even though disagreement on the “writ-
ing of humanity’s cultural history” will sometimes lead to tense relations
between cultural spheres? ICESCO, for instance, regards “Westernized”
education as a threat, rather than as a role model, but it is yet by no
means clear what the implications are for the future global cultural devel-
opment and the relations between the cultural spheres. Lastly, it remains
to be seen whether there is any evidence for this development in other
regions of the world before larger-scale conclusions can be drawn. Further
research is needed to provide a more complete picture of the interactions
between the global, regional, and local levels of education policy.
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right holder.
8
Regional Ideas in International
Education Organizations: The Case
of SEAMEO
David Krogmann
Introduction1
Over the last decades, various regional International Organizations (IOs)
have emerged as relevant yet largely uncharted actors in international
education policy. One of them is the Southeast Asian Ministers of
Education Organization (SEAMEO). The underrepresentation of
regional organizations in contemporary research on international educa-
tion policy is striking, especially when considering that SEAMEO has
been a major player in education policy in Southeast Asia for decades.
1
SFB 1342.
D. Krogmann (*)

218 D. Krogmann
Despite being founded in 1965 (SEAMEO 1965), it has consistently

failed to garner any attention from scholars of international education or
international relations. By exploring the underlying leitmotifs and ideas
that inform the discourse produced and reproduced by SEAMEO, the
following chapter represents a first step toward filling this gap. How does
SEAMEO conceive of education? I argue that SEAMEO follows a dis-
tinctly holistic ideal of education policy, stressing both the social as well
as the economic purposes of education. While some of its inspiration
may stem from the United Nations’ (UN) post-2015 global sustainable
development agenda in education policy, SEAMEO has championed a
balanced approach toward education from its very inception. However, it
has done and continues to do so with a distinct emphasis on the educa-
tional purpose of reinforcing the collectively shared cultural values and
traditions of its member states, which it deems unique to Southeast Asia.
The influence of regional organizations on education policy in their
respective regions should not be underestimated. Indeed, the majority of
international organizations active in education policy are regional organi-
zations (Martens and Niemann 2021). Acting at the intersection of the
global and the local, SEAMEO is uniquely connected with both globally
oriented partner organizations, such as the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the national gov-
ernments of its member states. Therefore, studying the organization’s per-
ception of education and its ideas on education policy provides valuable
insights into conceptions of education in the region.
The case study presented here relies on qualitative content analysis to
infer SEAMEO’s ideas and leitmotifs in education policy from the orga-
nization’s policy publications as well as from personal statements made by
SEAMEO officials. Qualitative content analysis is a method for system-
atically analyzing qualitative data and deducing meaning from docu-
ments (Krippendorff 2004; Schreier 2014). Valuable objects for analysis
can, in principle, include recorded communication of any form. Two
main sources were used for the purpose of this chapter. First, 15 strategic
education policy documents published by SEAMEO between 1970 and
2019 were deductively analyzed using a coding scheme based on the dif-
ferent leitmotifs in education policy presented in the introduction to this
volume. Eligible documents for analysis were limited to publications
8 Regional Ideas in International Education Organizations… 219
available in English to circumvent the considerable language barriers

resulting from SEAMEO using multiple official languages. To organize
the data, the software MAXQDA was employed. The 185 data points
acquired through this process form the basis of the analysis.
Complementing this first step, a semi-structured interview with a high-
ranking SEAMEO official was conducted in February 2020. Before
engaging with the data, however, the chapter provides a brief introduc-
tion to SEAMEO, covering its organizational setup, its member states,
and its cooperation with other organizations. Based on four leitmotifs in
education policy, I then explore the qualitative data drawn from the doc-
uments before discussing the results. The chapter closes with a short out-
look on possible implications of the evidence from this analysis.
International Organizations in Education:

Leitmotifs and Ideas
This chapter rests on a few core assumptions about the role of ideas and
leitmotifs in the discourses proliferated by international organizations
working on education. The first is that international organizations mat-
ter. They have a distinct influence on international education policy,
which manifests itself in various ways (Barnett and Finnemore 1999;
Hawkins et al. 2006; Bauer 2006). One of these ways is the diffusion of
norms and ideas (Barnett and Finnemore 2004); it is through this pro-
cess, among others, that international organizations have become rele-
vant actors in global education policy. Through the activities of IOs, ideas
concerning what education is supposed to look like or what purpose it
should serve are distributed beyond national borders. Conversely, IOs
also incorporate ideas proliferated by their member states, meaning diffu-
sion is not just a one-way road, though it is rarely possible to trace a cer-
tain idea all the way back to its very origin. Nonetheless, as ideas are such
a crucial part of what makes IOs influential in global politics, research on
what these ideas and leitmotifs might be is imperative.
I use the terms “leitmotif ” and “idea” in the following sections. A leit-
motif is a recurring theme in a given medium and, in this context, guides
220 D. Krogmann
education policy. As established in the previous chapter, I follow Goldstein

and Keohane’s conceptualization in which an idea is a belief held by indi-
viduals (Goldstein and Keohane 1993). Leitmotifs, in turn, are com-
prised of sets of multiple ideas. This chapter attempts to uncover the ideas
and leitmotifs proposed and reinforced by SEAMEO in its official docu-
ments. For this purpose, it relies on four basic guiding principles or leit-
motifs in education (see the introduction to this volume, Chap. 1; Nagel
et al. 2010).
Generally, education can be seen as a means to increase either the eco-
nomic utility or the cohesiveness of a given society. These basic aims work
on both the individual and the collective level. For individuals, education
is supposed to enhance their skills for the labor market, thereby boosting
their productivity and income. With respect to the social dimension,
education is supposed to enable individuals to find self-fulfillment and
develop their character to the fullest. On the collective level, education
can be seen as a means to increase economic growth and provide skilled
human capital. At the same time, it can also be an important tool for
states and IOs to create an informed citizenry that allows its members to
participate in the political process, to be aware of their rights and duties,
and to achieve a cohesive, just society. These leitmotifs are of course ideal
types. Also, they are not mutually exclusive, meaning that most of the
time all of them will be informing the actions of a given education IO to
some degree. Furthermore, the principles may be interlinked. On the
individual level, skill formation and a successful career may contribute to
self-fulfillment for citizens. On the collective level, a wealthy nation may
have an easier time with citizen participation in the political process and
in society in general given that people do not have to spend most of their
time on their livelihood when there is a certain degree of wealth.
Seeing as ideas depend on the social context within which they are cre-
ated and reproduced, it can be expected that region- or culture-specific
ideas are at play within regional education IOs. While these ideas can be
grouped into the same basic categories as global or transnational ideas, it
is important to adequately contextualize them. For example, the idea that
education is supposed to contribute to people’s cultural awareness for a
more cohesive society is part of a social-collective conceptualization of
education policy. Which culture people should be aware of, however, is

region-specific. Indeed, education ideas concerned with culture only
make sense in a regional context, as there is no “world culture”. There is
no universal consensus on cultural awareness as a desirable education
outcome, so we may expect to find an emphasis on cultural education
only in regional organizations.
For regional organizations, it is generally important to set foci for their
work. Due to limited budgets and personnel, regional organizations
require certain education policy objectives to be prioritized over others in
order to be effective. The three Islamic education IOs covered elsewhere
in this volume (Chap. 7) provide an example of this process, as they pri-
oritize social and cultural purposes of education over economic ones.
Subsequently, it should be expected that SEAMEO is similarly forced to
set priorities. Due to the poor economic status of many SEAMEO mem-
ber states, one may additionally expect that the organization conceptual-
izes education mainly as a policy field of economic development. Based
on the available data, however, I argue that this is not the case.
xploring SEAMEO: A Decentralized Approach

E
to International Cooperation
SEAMEO is a regional international organization tasked with facilitating
cooperation in education, science, and culture between its member states.
Since its inception more than five decades ago, it has grown into one of
the most relevant actors in international education policy in Southeast
Asia. Its purposes resemble those of similar organizations around the
world, which have been modeled after UNESCO, albeit with distinct
regional contexts, such as the Islamic World Education, Science, and
Culture Organization (ICESCO) and the Arab League Cultural,
Educational, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO). The Yearbook of
International Organizations classifies SEAMEO as a regionally defined
membership organization, meaning that its “Membership and preoccupa-
tions [are] restricted to a particular continental or sub-continental region
or contiguous group of countries, and [it] covers at least 3 countries or
222 D. Krogmann
includes at least 3 autonomous international bodies” (Union of

International Associations 2020). SEAMEO membership reflects this
typology, as all 11 of its current member states are located in the Southeast
Asian region.
SEAMEO is closely affiliated with the more widely known Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), another regional international
organization that covers a larger range of policy areas, often with an eco-
nomic focus. The member states that constitute ASEAN are almost iden-
tical to those of SEAMEO, with the exception of Timor-Leste, which is
a member of SEAMEO but not of ASEAN. As per its “core values”,
SEAMEO intends to be “ASEAN’s strategic partner for the advancement
of education, science and culture” (SEAMEO 2020a). This cooperation
is realized via regular coordination meetings, joint projects in education
and culture, and memorandums of understanding.
Although the education ministers of its member states make up the
SEAMEO Council, which is the organization’s highest decision-making
body, and the SEAMEO Secretariat as the main administrative body is
set up in Bangkok, SEAMEO’s work is distinctly decentralized in nature.
The practical work “on the ground” is carried out by 26 regional centers,
which are spread across all member states. These centers operate as inde-
pendent organizational units with their own secretariats, budget, and
staff, and they report to both the SEAMEO Secretariat as well as the
respective ministries of the countries they operate in (see Fig. 8.1). They
cover fields as diverse as Open and Distance Learning (covered by the
SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Centre (SEAMOLEC)), Southeast
Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture
(SEARCA), or Tropical Biology (BIOTROP). In total, SEAMEO employs
over 1,000 people across all its centers (Interview SEAMEO A 2020).
The decentralized nature of SEAMEO’s organizational structure
implies the possible existence of many different views and ideas since, in
principle, every regional center may have its own distinct motifs. However,
most of these centers do not deal specifically with education policy but
rather focus on content-based implementation of policy in their respec-
tive fields. They do not engage in justifying or reflecting on educa-
tion policy.
Fig. 8.1 SEAMEO structure. (Own account, data from https://www.seameo.org/)
SEAMEO’s member states are very heterogeneous in terms of eco-

nomic development. While some of them, such as Singapore and
Malaysia, have been on the forefront of economic growth in the region,
others are among the poorest countries in Asia. Thus, SEAMEO faces the
delicate challenge of balancing the educational needs of its developing
member states with those of its richer members when designing policy.
This diversity gives rise to questions about distributional justice and the
balance of power within the organization, both of which are somewhat
alleviated through means of unanimous decision-making in the SEAMEO
Council (Interview SEAMEO A 2020). Although policy decisions can be
taken by qualified majority, decisions that face the objection of even a
single member state are rarely adopted.
224 D. Krogmann
As the main international organization for education in the region,

SEAMEO is notably well connected both with governments in the region
as well as with partner organizations. It is also the main partner for global
education IOs operating in the region. SEAMEO’s joint projects include
cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
UNESCO, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). SEAMEO and
UNESCO have been regular partners since the early 1980s, cooperating
on a wide range of education projects in Southeast Asia. A recent example
is the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for
Sustainable Development (ESD) launched in 2014, which is imple-
mented in the region by SEAMEO (SEAMEO 2020b). For UNICEF,
cooperation with SEAMEO has notably increased since 2010 (Interview
1), with one instance being the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics
(SEA-PLM) program for grade assessment, which is funded by
UNICEF. On the other hand, SEAMEO works with nongovernmental
actors like the German Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ) and various universities from around the world. As noted by a
SEAMEO official in February 2020 in reference to the UN agencies, “If
the project is in Southeast Asia, they [UN entities] will contact
SEAMEO. Normally, that’s the way. … We are the project implementer”
(Interview SEAMEO A 2020).
SEAMEO’s Ideas in Education Policy
IOs often stress that all purposes of education are important and refer to
a rather encompassing view on education. In most cases, however, differ-
ent foci can be found in their documents, statements, and policies. The
World Bank and the OECD, for example, pursue an economic focus in
education policy (Chap. 5), whereas ICESCO stresses the social purposes
of education policy (Chap. 7). SEAMEO, on the other hand, proliferates
a balanced and holistic view on education. I refer to this view as holistic
because according to SEAMEO, education is supposed to benefit indi-
viduals as well as society in regard to both economic and social needs.
This is in line with recent definitions of holistic education (Mahmoudi
et al. 2012). Concurrently, SEAMEO’s education ideas do have their
own essence, in that education policy is seen as an important tool in pre-

serving the cultural roots of the region in both individuals and society. By
recognizing the cultural dimension of education, SEAMEO views itself
as uniquely suited to tackle the challenges facing education policy in the
region. IOs with a global focus, such as UNESCO, need a partner in the
region if their policies are to be successful, because Southeast Asia is a
unique setting for education policy and must be treated accordingly.
Education ideas can be grouped into four basic categories or leitmotifs
depending on what they deem to be the primary purpose of education
and education policy. Education policy enables individual skill formation
and self-fulfillment but is also crucial for economic growth on the national
level as well as social participation on the individual level. In this section,
I argue that although SEAMEO’s education ideas partly overlap with the
UN’s sustainable development agenda, in that it recognizes the social,
cultural, and economic purposes of education, it does so with its own
distinct references to Southeast Asian culture and regional values. This
emphasis on regional culture represents the main difference between
SEAMEO’s conceptualization of education policy and the one produced
by the UN.
The post-2015 global sustainable development agenda encompasses
17 sustainable development goals, of which Goal 4—quality educa-
tion—is the most relevant for education policy. Goal 4 represents a com-
mitment by the UN member states to “ensure inclusive and quality
education for all and promote lifelong learning” because “Education
enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty.
Education helps reduce inequalities and reach gender equality and is cru-
cial to fostering tolerance and more peaceful societies” (UN 2020, 1).
This recent statement displays a holistic view on education, which is
comprised of a balanced set of different ideas about what education
should primarily achieve, such as social cohesion or economic growth.
SEAMEO, on the other hand, has championed this view on education
since its inception back in 1965, referring to a better “quality of life” for
the people of Southeast Asia as the main purpose of its existence. The
documents reviewed for this chapter contain frequent references to this
purpose, stating for example that “[SEAMEO] is mandated to enhance
regional understanding and cooperation and unity of purpose among
226 D. Krogmann
SEAMEO Member Countries in order to achieve a better quality of life”

(SEAMEO 2017a, xiii, emphasis added). In fact, out of the 15 reviewed
documents, only 6 did not include statements on quality of life. It remains
vague, however, what the term “quality of life” entails beyond the general
notion that education and science are supposed to holistically improve
every aspect of people’s lives in the region. Therefore, it seems more fruit-
ful to focus on specific statements made by SEAMEO on the social and/
or economic purposes of education.
In SEAMEO’s founding charter, the signatory members explicitly note
that the organization will “assist in articulating education to the eco-
nomic and social goals in the individual Member States” (Art. I § 2b,
emphasis added). Since then, this sentiment has found its way into most
publications available for analysis. Below are some examples from differ-
ent decades:
The benefits of … education may be derived at various levels. At the per-

sonal level, individuals can improve their knowledge and skills for their
own betterment, be this in terms of material or moral well-being. The con-
tributions of the individuals could lead to greater productivity and better
livelihood of a community …. (SEAMES 1973, 3)
[A] large segment of the population … require[s] some form of educational

service to improve their economic status and the quality of their social
participation. (SEAMES 1981, 2)
Education is very important in bringing a better quality of life of people in

the region [sic!]. At the individual level, education offers the opportunity
for a person to acquire new knowledge, learn relevant skills and pathways
to realise personal aspirations. At the macro level, education is strongly
linked to economic productivity, technological advancement, higher
income, and lowered poverty levels. (SEAMEO 2008, 5)
[Education] can maximise the development of knowledge and skills that

enable individuals to attain holistic well-being, sense of responsibility and
self-reliance. Ultimately, successful individuals are able to live harmoni-
ously and further contribute to society. (SEAMEO 2017a, iv)
Unlike other education IOs, there are few instances in which SEAMEO
documents would prioritize one aspect of education policy over others.
This finding is consistent with statements drawn from an interview with
a high-ranking SEAMEO official conducted in February 2020, in which
the interviewee stressed that education must be treated as part of both
social policy and development or economic policy. The interviewee also
subscribed to the idea that education should be seen as a “holistic proj-
ect” in which different purposes of education need to be fairly balanced.
Therefore, neither the social nor the economic dimension is prioritized
over the other in education policy (Interview SEAMEO A 2020, 10).
Indeed, it seems that in recent years SEAMEO has started to support
this “holistic” nature of education quite explicitly (SEAMEO 2017a, iv),
especially in the context of lifelong learning. For example, in its action
agenda of 2017, SEAMEO proposed an association of lifelong learning
with the objective of developing and implementing “holistic and com-
prehensive lifelong learning approaches” (SEAMEO 2017b, 36).
Since a holistic view on education encompasses all four basic categories
of education ideas (Nagel et al. 2010), evidence of each of these idea
groups or leitmotifs should be found in SEAMEO publications. The fol-
lowing section will assess the findings for each category found in
SEAMEO’s policy publications. When possible, instances where these
ideas are highlighted separately instead of where they are intertwined
with their counterparts are presented. A standard practice in the publica-
tions of education IOs includes listing all imaginable benefits of educa-
tion when addressing readers; however, it is more noteworthy if an idea is
presented separately from others.
Individual skill formation, referring to the development of personal
abilities that help boost the productivity and economic livelihood of an
individual, is especially present in earlier documents. Here, education
primarily ensures equal opportunities in the transnational labor markets
for individuals from all kinds of economic backgrounds and increases the
general standard of living of people in the region. These ideas are present
in publications as early as 1973 (SEAMES 1973, 1). In the context of
nonformal education, education policy is “called upon to assist in raising
standards of living and in improving the quality of life of the underprivi-
leged” (SEAMES 1981, 4). Identifying the need to educate children and
228 D. Krogmann
youth that do not finish school or have never enjoyed regular schooling,
SEAMEO notes that “a large proportion of out-of-school youth and
adults do not possess marketable skills” and that occupational training
needs to be expanded to empower “the urban and rural underprivileged
in raising their standard of living” (SEAMES 1980, 10).
Overall, however, SEAMEO mostly refers to the collective economic
benefits of education, if it deviates at all from its emphasis on holistic
well-being. These collective purposes of education include economic
development and human capital formation. Therefore, education policy
needs to be a part of an economy’s response to the ever-increasing global-
ization of national markets and the challenges posed by the transnation-
alization of human capital. As noted in 2008 by Prof. Dr. Bambang
Sudibyo, the then Minister for National Education of the Republic of
Indonesia and SEAMEO Council President, “In today’s globalised
world …, the people have to be able to respond to the global outlook and
be ready to seize global opportunities” (SEAMEO 2008, 5). This idea is
displayed in many recent publications (SEAMEO 2011; SEAMEO
2017b; SEAMES 1980). As a poignant example, note this statement
from the 2011–2020 SEAMEO Strategic Plan:
SEAMEO recognizes that the ever-changing labour market needs and fast-
paced global development pose enormous challenges for Southeast Asia to
sustain and upgrade the competitiveness of its human resources.
(SEAMEO 2013, 66)
To effectively tackle globalization’s challenges, education is the premier

tool available to SEAMEO member states. In this context, SEAMEO
views itself both as an enabler and a provider for its members, stating that
it is “Southeast Asia’s largest and most dependable service provider in
human resource development” (SEAMEO 2008, 8), with its economic
mission being “to nurture human capacities and explore the fullest poten-
tials of people in the region” (ibid.). In sum, “SEAMEO firmly believes
that regional strategies should be aimed at benefitting individual member
countries while at the same time achieving integration for regional
growth” (SEAMEO 2013, 66).
With respect to the social dimension of education, SEAMEO displays

a distinct cultural element to its policy reasoning and its specific recom-
mendations. This idea is based on the notion of the unique nature of the
Southeast Asia region, which requires an approach toward education
policy specifically tailored to and mindful of this nature. For individuals,
education is viewed as a means to promote and attain personal develop-
ment, a healthy life, and fulfilling participation in society. For societies,
education has a huge range of purposes; it can be a catalyst for a healthy,
equal, fair, and moral society and a prerequisite for cultural awareness of
one’s own culture as well as foreign cultures, thereby enabling intercul-
tural dialogue.
Among the benefits presented, the most prominent relate to cultural-
regional aspects such as local traditions, history, and language. As early as
1973, SEAMEO noted that “education can strengthen … nation build-
ing, preservation and development of cultural heritage and environmen-
tal improvements” (SEAMES 1973, 6). To this day, SEAMEO upholds
the reproduction and appreciation of cultural roots as one of education’s
main social purposes (SEAMEO 2013, 2017a, 2017b). According to
SEAMEO, a necessary condition for valuable intercultural dialogue both
between and within different regions is a society that is aware and appre-
ciative of its own culture. This is especially true for Southeast Asian soci-
eties because many of them are either multiethnic, multireligious, or,
commonly, both. According to Prof. Dr. Sudibyo, “in … socio-cultural
development, education takes greater significance in multi-ethnic and
multi-religious societies. Education can help to raise awareness of com-
monalities and shared values among different communities” (SEAMEO
2008, 5). In this way, SEAMEO hopes to create and encourage a shared
“unity of purpose” among its member states through education (SEAMEO
1999, 2011, 2013).
Furthermore, SEAMEO views education as a tool to produce and
reproduce regional norms and values and to improve social cohesion
within its member states. Special attention is regularly given to vulnera-
ble communities and the ways in which they can be empowered by qual-
ity education, possibly resulting in a more cohesive and resilient society
and providing equal opportunities to people from all kinds of back-
grounds. In this context, “vulnerable communities” refers to those that
230 D. Krogmann
suffer from any form of systematic exclusion from the education system.
This includes linguistic and/or ethnic minorities, people with special edu-
cation needs, the economically disadvantaged, or those who live in remote
areas without access to regular schooling (SEAMEO 2016, 5). In order to
support these communities, SEAMEO has dedicated one of their 7 “pri-
ority areas” from 2015–2035 to addressing barriers to inclusion
(SEAMEO 2017b, 2017c, 12). As an interviewed official stated, “the
target of the ministers … is how to identify the marginalized learners—
those who are out of school—and bring them back to school” (Interview
SEAMEO A 2020, 2).
Overall, there is evidence of all four categories presented above: skill
formation, self-fulfillment, wealth of nations, and social right and duty. In
the policy publications, however, none of them are presented as being
more important to the education ideal of SEAMEO than any of the other
categories. This finding is once again consistent with personal accounts.
When presented with different purposes of education that were similar to
the aforementioned ones, the interviewed official refrained from ranking
or weighing them against one another, instead stating that “they are all
important … within our vision and mission” (Interview SEAMEO A
2020, 10).
What then distinguishes SEAMEO from other education IOs if not
for a policy focus? From this analysis, it is precisely the holistic nature of
SEAMEO’s ideal of education that separates it from the bulk of global
education IOs. More specifically, the fact that we can observe this “qual-
ity of life” approach so early in SEAMEO’s publications is unique to this
organization. As Niemann (Chap. 5) points out, most education IOs
started their activities focusing either on the social dimension of educa-
tion, like UNESCO did, or on the economic dimension, like the OECD
and the World Bank did. SEAMEO, on the other hand, included both
social and economic goals for education policy in its charter (see above)
and its mission from its very foundation in 1965 onward, whereby both
types of goals were granted equal significance. It has since been a consis-
tent proponent of this holistic approach.
Being the largest and most relevant regional education IO in Southeast
Asia, SEAMEO furthermore views itself as an advocate for the region’s
cultural uniqueness, which requires an education system that is mindful
of and specifically tailored to the nature of the region. This notion can be
found in other regional international organizations, such as the Arabic
education IOs ALECSO and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf
States (ABEGS) (Chap. 7); it is rooted in the belief that Western ideas of
education dominate in global education IOs, such as UNESCO, and
that these ideas as well as the policies informed by them cannot be as
readily applied to Southeast Asia as they can to, say, Western Europe,
since they do not take into account cultural-regional contexts. At best,
this might render them less effective for Southeast Asia; at worst, they
may downright fail in the region. What is needed in the region, then, is a
well-rounded education approach made for SEAMEO countries. Two
statements made by the SEAMEO Council in 2014 and 2016 with the
Vientiane Statement and the Bandung Statement, respectively, call for
this “revolutionary” approach to be implemented:
We therefore call for a new paradigm for the development of education in

Southeast Asia that will require changes to educational systems that are not
only gradual and evolutionary, but also revolutionary while still being
rooted in our shared values and traditions. (SEAMEO 2016, 3)
We therefore call for action among the delegations and institutions repre-
sented here to work cooperatively in building the region’s educational sys-
tem that is dynamic and resilient amidst current challenges, even as they
remain rooted in our shared values and traditions. (SEAMEO 2016, 7)
From these press statements alone, it remains unclear what these cultural
roots, values, and traditions entail and what they mean for education
policy in the region, apart from their perceived uniqueness. I believe the
most comprehensive answer to this lies in the following quotation, wor-
thy of repeating almost in its entirety:
Culture refers to a people’s traditions, history, values, and language that

make up the culture of a group and which contribute to their identity.
Integrated with education, it brings about awareness, appreciation, and
understanding of one’s national patrimony, which reflects, validates, and
promotes the values, world views, and languages of the community’s cul-
ture. Culture-based education … intends to respect all forms of knowledge
232 D. Krogmann
and ways of knowing and supporting indigenous people and various eth-
nicities as individuals and community members in educational practices.
(SEAMEO 2017b, 247)
As a result, it seems from these definitions that global standards of educa-

tion can never fully account for regional contexts. Consequently, culture-
based education must be designed regionally with the help of organizations
like SEAMEO. It is this role as a facilitator of quality education in
Southeast Asia that SEAMEO supposedly intends to fill. The challenge
for SEAMEO in doing so is framed as follows: It must balance its educa-
tion policy between its unique cultural background and a global labor
and goods market that is dominated by Western standards and require-
ments, all while maintaining a well-rounded and balanced approach
toward education. Quality education in the SEAMEO region must be
“proactive and future-oriented, yet rooted in the values and traditions of
the region” (SEAMEO 2017c, 1).
he Content of SEAMEO Education Policy: 7

T
Priority Areas
Having established the ideas and leitmotifs found in SEAMEO’s docu-

ments, how does SEAMEO go about achieving these formulated policy
goals? Are these ideas reflected in the content of the organization’s policy?
As the organization is very active on many fronts, the following section
focuses on SEAMEO’s “7 Priority Areas” for 2015–2035. These areas
were established in 2015 to inform and set the agenda for the next two
decades of education policy in the region (SEAMEO 2017c). Table 8.1
provides a summary of the priority areas.
The first two of these priorities are targeted primarily at the aforemen-
tioned vulnerable groups and local communities, which may be excluded
from learning opportunities due to systemic factors. They explicitly target
these segments of the population to achieve a more cohesive and just
society with equal opportunities for all learners (SEAMEO 2017c, ii). It
could be argued that the same is true for Priority 3, because national
emergencies, such as natural disasters or wars, tend to hit vulnerable
communities much harder than others. Priority 4 is the only area with a
Table 8.1 SEAMEO’s priority areas in education

Title
Priority 1 Achieving universal early childhood care and education
Priority 2 Addressing barriers to inclusion
Priority 3 Resiliency in the face of emergencies
Priority 4 Promoting technical and vocational education and training
Priority 5 Revitalizing teacher education
Priority 6 Harmonizing higher education and research
Priority 7 Adopting a twenty-first-century curriculum
From SEAMEO (2017c)
strictly economic focus, aiming to provide the people of the region with
suitable skills for the labor market and enabling workers’ global mobility.
Priorities 5 and 6 are formulated rather generally and it remains uncer-
tain whether SEAMEO has a specific focus in mind here. They are essen-
tially “meta”—or process-related—goals, in that they stress the need to
reform the education system in the SEAMEO region using an integrated
approach that sets region-wide standards, best practices, and frameworks
across all member states. Finally, the justification for Priority 7 almost
reads like a synopsis of the analysis presented in Chap. 7. By means of an
adequate curriculum to be taught in the education institutions of the
region, SEAMEO aims to achieve both its social and economic goals
while accounting for its cultural roots and values. Thus, adopting a
twenty-first-century curriculum means “pursuing a radical reform
through systematic analysis of knowledge, skills and values needed to
effectively respond to changing global contexts, particularly to the ever-
increasing complexity of the Southeast Asian social-cultural and political
environment” (SEAMEO 2017c, ii).
In order to effectively monitor implementation of the seven priority
areas in the member states, SEAMEO uses a percentage-based target sys-
tem. Education projects connected to the seven areas are reported during
the yearly meeting of member state vice ministers of education. They are
then recorded and given a contribution percentage value, enabling the
Secretariat to track the progress toward all areas in the various member
countries (Interview SEAMEO A 2020). Best practices and outstanding
projects are highlighted and published in documents such as the 2017
report “7 Priority Areas—Implementation by SEAMEO Member
Countries”.
234 D. Krogmann
Generally, the priority areas fit quite well with the evidence presented
in Chap. 7. This is especially true for Priority 7. Ideally, the analysis
should be complemented by an assessment of SEAMEO’s budget. After
all, action (i.e. financing) may sometimes speak louder than words. Does
SEAMEO allocate its budgetary items in a way that pairs well with its
stated goals and ideals in education policy? Unfortunately, obtaining the
budget for the SEAMEO Secretariat proved to be difficult. Furthermore,
due to the decentralized structure of the organization, in which every
regional center has its own budget co-funded by the state it is located in,
the Secretariat’s budget would not tell the whole story—unless one were
to obtain all 26 regional centers’ budgets as well.
Conclusion
This chapter has argued that SEAMEO proliferates a holistic, encom-
passing, and balanced ideal of education in which both social and eco-
nomic purposes of education are relevant on the individual and societal
levels. Furthermore, there is evidence of a special, region-specific twist to
SEAMEO’s leitmotifs in education policy that manifests itself in the
emphasis of cultural values and traditional norms rooted in the regional
context of Southeast Asia. The importance of culture in education for
people in the region requires a mindful approach toward education pol-
icy, which takes such elements into account in order to be successful.
Combined with the findings from the chapter on the Islamic educa-
tion organizations (Chap. 7), the evidence hints at a more general devel-
opment in regard to regional education IOs. Regional organizations, like
SEAMEO, are keen on reaping the developmental benefits of globaliza-
tion but at the same time are unwilling to sacrifice their cultural roots,
values, or traditions for it. The result is a delicate act of balancing between
these two worlds. Further research is required to solidify the theoretical
implications of the data presented here. How is the distinct cultural ele-
ment in both SEAMEO’s education ideas as well as in those of other
regional or cultural organizations related to globalization? Are these
developments expressions of a “new regionalism” or “in-group orienta-
tion” in international politics? Is there a countermovement against
globally proliferated Western education ideals, or are these exceptional

rather than representative cases for the interaction between the global and
the regional? Future research needs to find answers to these questions if a
coherent picture is to be established of how regional organizations react
to globalization as well as to the dominance of Western ideals in educa-
tion policy.
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right holder.
9
Talking About Education: How Topics
Vary Between International
Organizations
Michael Windzio and Raphael Heiberger
Introduction1
Policymakers usually regard education as a domestic policy field, where
responsibility rests either with the national government or, as in most
federal states, is delegated to subnational units. That education policy is
heavily influenced by transnational entities, and by international
1
SFB 1342.
M. Windzio (*)
R. Heiberger
Computational Social Science, Institute for Social Sciences,
University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

240 M. Windzio and R. Heiberger
organizations (IOs) in particular, is a fairly new insight within the realm

of academic research and also a new experience for some policymakers
(Martens et al. 2010, 2014). Tracing the influences of these IOs in detail
is challenging for several reasons, one being the great variety of IOs—cur-
rently around 30—that are active in the policy field of education
(Niemann and Martens 2021). While many industrialized countries have
responded to the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) study over the years, it remains an open question
whether and how other organizations influence domestic education poli-
cies, and, if so, which countries are affected.
This study takes one step back from such a causal analysis and instead
aims at analyzing the programs and recommendations communicated by
IOs in their major documents in a descriptive manner. If we assume that
IOs are more or less powerful actors in the global world system and that
they try to influence domestic education policies (Martens et al. 2007),
then we should first attempt to understand their missions and preferred
goals in the field of education. In line with the studies by Niemann
(Chap. 5) and Krogmann (Chaps. 7 and 8), we analyze the goals and
ideas of IOs where education is concerned but apply a different method-
ological approach. We created a comprehensive text corpus (over 40 mil-
lion words) from documents published by the six IOs that were selected
to be analyzed in this book (Chap. 1) and applied structural topic models
(STMs) to analyze the basic topics these organizations are dealing with.
We selected the IOs according to a two-dimensional classification that
distinguishes between derivative and dedicated education IOs, on the one
hand, and IOs with open or restricted membership criteria, on the
other hand.
According to our results, the six IOs do indeed focus on different
issues. As we will see, this is basically due to the outstanding degree of
homogeneity of topics communicated in the documents of those IOs
that are dedicated to the issue of education, but at the same time restricted
in their membership. These IOs are the Islamic Word Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the Southeast Asia
Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO).
9 Talking About Education: How Topics Vary… 241
Theoretical Background
How can we explain why IOs communicate about education in different
ways? This is an important question given that we know IOs can consid-
erably influence domestic education policies. When the OECD pub-
lished the results of its first PISA study in 2000, policymakers and
researchers controversially discussed the comparisons of educational per-
formance and their policy implications. Many countries took the oppor-
tunity to implement reforms after being disappointed with their poor
performance. The OECD thus had a strong influence on their domestic
education policies, even though the organization itself does not have any
formal authority. Switzerland, for example, was receptive to the study
because education reforms had been considered overdue for decades;
however, they were difficult to implement in a federal system with many
veto players (Bieber and Martens 2011). In Germany, education policy
changed so dramatically after the PISA study that scholars even used
metaphors such as “Turn of the Tide” (Niemann 2010) or “After the Big
Bang” (Niemann 2014).
Not all countries in the world are members of the OECD, but its con-
cepts and suggestions for economic development are rather general and
might also be applicable for non-members. Similarly, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is well
known for its focus on the role of education for economic and social
development in the Global South but is not at all limited to these issues.
Other organizations focus on particular world regions or on countries
where a particular culture or religion prevails.
Communication theories often regard communication as a system
embedded in surrounding social systems (Luhmann 2000). Mass com-
munication operates in specific ecologies where different media compete
for niches to survive, maintain their communication, and get attention.
Niche theory argues that the overall semantic space of communication at
a given moment results from variation and selection within this competi-
tive discourse environment. If a given ecology is unfavorable toward a
particular communication, actors often seek to establish their own niche
or try to fill existing, but alternative, niches (Riedlinger and Rea 2015).
For instance, a new niche was established when communication on the

Internet started, and what we observe today is an increasing differentia-
tion of niches that becomes apparent in various different online plat-
forms that engage in tight competition for attention. Despite this
fine-grained differentiation, the proliferation of certain niches such as
YouTube is a challenge for traditional media. Not only the form but also
the content of a newly emerged discourse niche might even displace pre-
viously dominant niches in the future (Ha and Fang 2012).
According to this niche competition argument, instead of there being
just one discourse on education led by one dominant and universalistic
IO, there might be different discourses in distinct niches. Such niche dif-
ferentiation might be brought about by perception that the dominant
and universalistic IO does not put sufficient weight on a particular issue,
or the perception that the discourse of the dominant IO is somehow
biased by a hegemonic ideology. This argument might be particularly
applicable to the field of education because education is closely related to
the intergenerational reproduction of culture. In the long run, the persis-
tence of different “cultural spheres” (Chap. 1) also depends on how coun-
tries organize the form and content of their education systems.
We thus expect there to be considerable differences in how these IOs
“talk” about education. To date, however, there is no standardized analy-
sis of the most prevalent topics being discussed by these IOs. Education
meets various functional requirements in a society such as generating lit-
eracy in the population, supporting ideas of legitimacy appropriate to the
respective institutional order, laying the foundation of human capital
investments, integrating migrants and their descendants into society, and
preventing juveniles from becoming delinquent (Windzio 2013). It is
likely that these and other functions of the education system are weighted
differently in the discourses of these IOs. According to the “cultural
spheres” argument ( Chap. 1), which highlights the importance of educa-
tion for the intergenerational reproduction of particular cultures, we
expect that the most prevalent topics differ between the IOs depending
on whether they are derivative or dedicated, open or restrictive. We thus
classify active IOs in the field of education along the two dimensions
derivative–dedicated and open–restricted (Chap. 1). An IO is derivative
with respect to education if it mainly deals with more general issues, such
as economic development, while covering education as just one issue

among many. A dedicated IO is one whose major topic is in fact educa-
tion. Furthermore, the nature of IOs’ membership rules can be open to
any state or be restricted according to specific criteria such as geographical
region or religion. Table 9.1 shows the categorization of the IOs and the
number of documents considered in the analysis.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank, and the
OECD are organizations that are not primarily focused on education,
whereby the latter IO is also restricted in its membership rules and essen-
tially only includes economically developed countries. In contrast,
UNESCO, ICESCO, and SEAMEO all have education as their main
focus, but only UNESCO membership is open to any state. ICESCO only
includes countries with a high share of Muslims and thus restricts member-
ship to a particular religion, while SEAMEO membership consists of 11
Southeast Asian countries and is thus restricted to a particular world region.
Given that there already existed an IO that supposedly handles the educa-
tional concerns of all countries in the world (UNESCO), there must be a
reason why these member-restrictive organizations were formed and con-
tinue to be active today. We assume that this is because these IOs focus
their communication specifically on their region, as in the case of SEAMEO,
or on their particular culture and religion, as is the case with ICESCO.
In the following sections, we apply structural topic models to a large
text corpus of IO documents in order to trace the major issues these orga-
nizations are talking about.
Table 9.1 International organizations (IOs) and number of documents by category

Derivative education IOs Dedicated education IOs
Open to any state ILO 217 UNESCO 220
World Bank 609
Restricted by criteria OECD 509 ICESCO 15
SEAMEO 33
Overall N = 1603
ILO: International Labour Organization
UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
SEAMEO: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization
ICESCO: Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,
formerly ISESCO
Data
Preprocessing
As a first step in the creation of the text corpus, we defined a search string
in order to restrict the selected documents to the issue of education by
using the keyword “education.” After the exclusion of clearly inappropri-
ate documents, these keywords yielded a set of N = 1603 documents (see
Table 9.1). The clearing of the text corpus included the removal of num-
bers, punctuation, and special characters. Subsequently, we identified
English stop words and extended the set of stop words by 21 corpus-
specific words (e.g., “chapter,” “table,” “director”). Words with less than
three letters were deleted.
We then lemmatized the corpus by using the function lemmatizestring
from the R package textstem. Finally, we removed tokens that appeared
in less than three documents.
Structural Topic Models

To reduce the semantic space of the documents published by the six IOs
to meaningful dimensions, we applied a recent variety of topic models
known as Structural Topic Modelling (Roberts et al. 2014, 2016). Topics
are directly derived from “bag-of-words” (meaning that word order and
grammar are ignored) by probabilistic algorithms. The main idea behind
all topic models is that words co-occurring in and across documents
describe meaningful themes (or topics). All topic models are generative
models of word counts using a two-step method of clustering. A topic is
defined as a mixture of words, where each word has a probability of
belonging to a topic (1st cluster step), and a document is a mixture of
topics, meaning that each document is composed of multiple topics (2nd
clustering). As such, the sum of the topic proportions across all topics for
a document is one (also known as θ, the topic load of a document). In
addition, the sum of the topic probabilities for a word across all topics is
also one (also known as β, a word’s contribution to a topic). Thus, the
more often words co-occur in documents, the higher the probability that
they constitute a topic.
Compared to other topic models (Jordan and Mitchell 2015), STM
allows for the improvement of the estimation of topics by using docu-
ment meta-data as covariates. STM does not assume that the distribution
of words is the same for all documents, but words in documents with the
same covariates (e.g., year, source) have a higher likelihood of being clus-
tered together and forming a topic. It has been shown that the inclusion
of covariates improves the quality of topic selection substantially (Roberts
et al. 2014, 2016), especially for documents covering longer time periods
(Farrell 2016).
Validation
Although the proposed STM solves other technical issues, such as finding
the optimal starting parameters and providing consistent results by a
“spectral initialization” (Roberts et al. 2016), it does not solve the issue of
selecting an appropriate number of topics, which is crucial for any fur-
ther analysis. Comparable to efforts in cluster analysis to determine the
optimal number of clusters, there is no “right” answer to the question of
how many topics are appropriate for a given corpus (Grimmer and
Stewart 2013); though there do exist better and worse choices. Given the
importance of the question, a careful examination and consideration of
different topic solutions is key to every scientific dimensional reduction
technique.
Internal Validation
The idea of internal validation is to identify a model with topics that best
reflect weighted bags of words that are used by interviewees. In other
words, we test which topics (respectively the most defining words of a
topic) best predict interviewees’ responses (aka the text). For that general
purpose, semantic coherence and exclusivity are widely used measures
(Mimno et al. 2011; Roberts et al. 2016).
The coherence of a semantic space addresses whether a topic is inter-

nally consistent by calculating the frequency with which high-probability
topic words tend to co-occur in documents. Coherence grows with the
likelihood of a topic’s most probable words co-occurring together. The
authors who introduced this measure, Mimno and Blei (2011), validated
it for academic writing. They showed that it had high correspondence
with the judgments of National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials on a
set of NIH grants (Mimno et al. 2011).
However, semantic coherence alone can be misleading since high val-
ues can simply be a result of very common words of a topic that occur
together in most documents. To account for the desired statistical dis-
crimination between topics, we may consider a second metric proposed
by Roberts et al. (2014) and measure the exclusivity of a topic. Exclusivity
provides us with the extent to which the words of a topic are distinct
from it. Both exclusivity and coherence complement each other and are
examined in concert to give us a first impression of where topics represent
word distributions in documents and at the same time provide distinct
dimensions.
The developers of STM recommend that researchers look for the
“semantic coherence-exclusivity frontier”—namely, the specification
after which allowing for more topics fails to produce models that domi-
nate others in terms of semantic coherence and exclusivity (Roberts et al.
2014, 7). Thus, what we are looking for is when both indicators build a
plateau, that is, they do not improve (much) with higher Ks. This gives us
an upper limit for a reasonable K.
Figure 9.1 reveals a “jump” in coherence at K = 70. Before and after that
jump it decreases with higher values of K. Looking at exclusivity, we see
that it increases only marginally after values of K are greater than 50.
Figure 9.1 displays the distribution of exclusivity and semantic coher-
ence. In general, we see that exclusivity gets better with a rising number
of topics, but coherence gets worse.
In addition, we look at the held-out likelihood. This is “a measure of
predictive power to evaluate comparative performance,” in this case
among models that allow for different numbers of topics (Roberts et al.
Coherence
Exclusivity
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Fig. 9.1 Exclusivity and semantic coherence
2016, 22). To obtain the held-out likelihood of an STM, we first subset

10% of the documents in the corpus and hold out half of the words in
them. We then evaluate the likelihood of the held-out words. Higher
likelihoods indicate a more predictive model. In general, the log-
likelihood of K is falling (more general topics, more predictive power).
Thus, we are looking for some “breaks” in a straight line. Figure 9.2 shows
a corresponding “plateau” to 1 around K = 70. That means the LL is not
improving much between steps 60 and 70, where we would expect to see
a linear falling curve.
10
−14.5
20
30
−15.0
40
50
60
−15.5 70
80
90
100
25 50 75 100
Fig. 9.2 Held-out log-likelihood
Robustness
In addition to internal validation, we may want to include a second pillar

by checking robustness across K. It is probably the most important way to
show that our choice of K is not changing the whole semantic space and
hence our (descriptive) analysis.
For this purpose, we use an indicator developed for comparing cluster-
ing solutions called “Fowlkes-Mallows Index” (FMI). It basically tests the
relation of true and false positives/negatives across cluster assignments, or
in our case, the assignment of a document to a topic. We used the
max-approach to assign topics to documents, that is, max(theta) (maxi-

mum topic load) of a document defines its topic. The FMI may give us a
straightforward way of measuring consistency by investigating the rate of
change with regard to topic assignments across different Ks.
K on the x-axis represents the similarity of topic assignments for all
documents between two consecutive Ks, that is, an STM with k-topics is
compared to the next smallest STM with k = 10 (e.g. k = 10 and k = 20
are compared at the first x-tick).
Figure 9.3 shows the results for the FMI. We see consistent values above
0.7 for K = 70. This means that more than 70% of documents’ maximum
0.7
0.6
0.5
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
K
Fig. 9.3 Fowlkes-Mallows Index

topic assignments at K = 60 are the same at the next highest K. Thus, K =

70 again marks a local peak, this time in terms of “robust” topic assign-
ments. In general, we note that the finer the semantic grid with rising K,
the lesser the changes necessary to classify documents sufficiently.
Therefore, all validation results point to K = 70 as the most valid and
consistent choice for the number of topics. However, we see in Fig. 9.3
that the choice of K is not changing the semantic dimensions (i.e., topics)
in a drastic way.
Results
According to the diagnostics presented in the previous section, we opted
for a solution with 70 topics. Each of these topics has a specific prevalence,
that is, a specific share in the overall set of these topics. Taken together, all
70 topics make up 100% of the semantic space. Figure 9.4 shows the ten
most important topics according to their topic prevalence and the five
most important words that best represent the respective topic. For an
understanding of what these topics mean, it is necessary to inspect the
topic-word list in the Appendix. Topic 57 refers to the level of education
of students and the OECD, whereas topic 64 refers to national policies
related to countries’ development. Topic 49 appears similar to topic 64
but focuses more on communities. Topic 13 focuses on the OECD, stu-
dents, and policies in conjunction with schools. In contrast, topic 18 is
more focused on teachers and their profession, while topic 53 is clearly
centered on vocational training and the OECD. Topic 60 is also focused
on teachers, but it additionally relates to recommendations and commit-
tees. Topic 26 is clearly related to labor training and the ILO, while topic
39 is centered on tertiary educational institutions (particularly universi-
ties) and topic 40 is again more focused on skills, training, and develop-
ment. At first glance, topics 57 and 13 seem to be similar, but closer
inspection reveals that topic 13 is limited to secondary education, whereas
topic 57 also deals with tertiary education. As this example shows, it can
sometimes be quite difficult to clearly discern the content of all 70 topics,
but aside from such instances, the top ten topics of our analysis are actu-
ally quite easy to distinguish between since they are dealing with distinct
Top Topics
Topic 57: education, country, student, oecd, level
Topic 64: education, development, country, national, policy
Topic 49: project, development, knowledge, community, process
Topic 13: education, oecd, student, policy, school
Topic 18: teacher, teach, school, education, professional
Topic 53: train, education, oecd, vocational, vet
Topic 60: teacher, education, recommendation, committee, teach
Topic 26: labour, train, ilo, development, programme
Topic 39: university, high, education, institution, student
Topic 40: train, education, system, development, skill
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
Expected Topic Proportions
Fig. 9.4 Topic proportions of the ten most important topics, solution with
70 topics
topics such as performance levels of secondary education, teacher-related

issues, tertiary education, vocational training, or labor-related issues.
More important for our research question is the relative importance of
the 70 topics for the different IOs. Figure 9.5 shows pie plots with the three
most important topics for each of our six IOs. The higher the proportion
covered by the three topics, the more focused the documents of the respec-
tive IO are on fewer issues. Contrariwise, if an organization discusses a
variety of different issues in equal proportion, then the topic heterogeneity
and overall share of the three most important topics are relatively low. It is
thus striking in Fig. 9.5 that for ICESCO and SEAMEO, at least three
quarters of their communication are concentrated among the three most
important topics. As argued in the theoretical section of this chapter, these
dedicated organizations are focused on education. Even though UNESCO
ICESCO ILO OECD

0.0 0.0 0.0 variable
0.8 0.8 0.8
V7
V13
0.2 0.2 0.2 V25

V26
0.6 0.6 0.6
V33
V37
0.4 0.4 0.4 V40
SEAMEO UNESCO World Bank V48

x
0.0 0.0 0.0 V49

0.8 0.8 0.8
V53
V55
0.2 0.2 0.2 V57

V60
0.6 0.6 0.6
V62
V63
0.4 0.4 0.4 V64
value
Fig. 9.5 Three most prevalent topics by organization
is a dedicated IO whose membership is open to all countries in the world,

ICESCO and SEAMEO create and maintain their own distinct thematic
niches, which implies that, in their view, UNESCO does not appropriately
address these niches (see Appendix for an overview of all 70 topics).
A closer inspection of the content of these topics reveals that this does
in fact seem to be the case. ICESCO devotes 54.7% of its communication
to topic 63, which is about “Islam, culture, and the state.” The remaining
two most important topics make up only a small proportion of around
4–5%. Accordingly, the main focus of ICESCO is clearly on Islam, the
social world, the state, and rights. The concentration of topics is even
more pronounced for SEAMEO. Here, 78.6% of its communication is
concentrated on topic 7, which is about “development, SE Asia” as well
as on the countries Thailand and Malaysia. The remaining two most
important topics make up around 3% each and focus on “early child-
hood and care” (topic 62), and “teacher and digital technology” (topic 33).
In contrast to ICESCO and SEAMEO, the three most important top-
ics of the OECD make up only one-third of its overall communication
combined. At the same time, the distribution of the topic proportions is

more equal: The most important issue has a share of 12.1% and is focused
on “earnings, tertiary and non-tertiary” (topic 57). In the overall text
corpus, this is the most prevalent topic (Fig. 9.4). In addition, topic 53,
which makes up 7.2% of the OECD’s communication, ranks sixth place
among the most important topics in the overall corpus and is clearly
focused on “vocational training and apprenticeship,” whereas topic 13
(“assessment, average, and Latvia”) makes up 8.3% and relates to schools,
secondary education, and national averages. Even though the OECD is
an organization with restricted membership, it is nevertheless rather
broad and heterogeneous in its communication about education.
Much like the OECD, the three most important topics for UNESCO
also make up around one-third of its communication. Topic 64 is its
most important topic, accounting for 13.1%, and rather broadly addresses
issues on “support national development” and training. In total, 10.3%
of UNESCO’s communication is again devoted to issues relevant to
development, such as “problems of adult learning.” Interestingly,
UNESCO also communicates considerably (7.1%) on topic 63 (“Islam,
culture, and the state”). As we have seen already, this is by far the most
important topic for ICESCO (54.7%), and despite being remarkably less
relevant for UNESCO, it nevertheless accounts for one of its three most
important topics. This probably has to do with UNESCO’s activities in
fields such as the preservation of cultural heritage and culture in general.
The World Bank shows the highest heterogeneity in its topics com-
pared to the other IOs, since only around 15% is concentrated on the
three most important topics, which are topic 49 (“development projects
and community”), topic 48 (“South Africa, development, and telecom-
munication”), and topic 40 (“vocational training and East Asia”). The
ILO shows a concentration of topics: “labor, train, development, and
worker” (topic 26, 15.1%), “selection of teachers” (topic 60, 14.2%), and
“war, employment, and wages” (topic 55, 10.6%).
To sum up, what we can learn from this standardized analysis of the
comprehensive text corpus is that our six IOs do indeed talk differently
about education. These differences are best described by the combination
of two characteristics, in the lower right cell of our 2 × 2 table (Table 9.1).
If IOs dedicated to the issue of education are at the same time restricted in
their membership (e.g., through their focus on either a particular cultural

sphere or world region), then they will tend to focus their communica-
tion on specific issues much more than either derivative IOs or UNESCO,
which is a dedicated IO but not restricted in membership. Interestingly,
the case of the OECD underscores that restrictions on membership do
not necessarily imply that the communication is limited to just a few top-
ics (Niemann and Martens 2021). Despite its membership restrictions,
the OECD seems to communicate on a huge variety of issues rather than
focus on just a few specific interests.
Conclusion
We began our study by describing the classification of our six IOs into a
2 × 2 table, defined by the dimensions derivative–dedicated and open–
restricted (Chap. 1). If comprehensive, universalistic IOs such as the
World Bank or UNESCO claim to represent the global world system, the
mere existence of dedicated IOs with restricted membership is a puzzling
occurrence in and of itself. Why do regional or culturally specific IOs
exist? Universalistic IOs such as UNESCO and the World Bank do not
restrict membership. Nevertheless, it seems that some groups of countries
do not feel represented by them. UNESCO is not regarded as an appro-
priate representation of certain countries when it comes to the cultural
aspects of education, while the World Bank’s inaccessibility stems from
its emphasis on the role education plays for the economy.
Our analysis of a huge text corpus of IO documents showed that the
major topics communicated by the respective organizations clearly differ.
The most important distinction is between ICESCO and SEAMEO, on
the one hand, that is, the two IOs that fall in both the restricted and dedi-
cated categories, and UNESCO, the OECD, and the World Bank, on the
other hand. The former IOs show a rather homogeneous, highly focused
content when it comes to their communication; there is basically one
“big issue” they are dealing with. ICESCO’s “big issue” is clearly the topic
“Islam, culture, and the state,” regardless of the fact that this topic is also
somewhat important to UNESCO. Nevertheless, UNESCO deals with a
variety of different issues and pays only minor attention to this particular
topic. Perhaps this is the reason why ICESCO exists: religion and culture
might be so important in the cultural sphere of Muslim countries (Chap.
2) that they consider it necessary to have a specific IO for this purpose.
As Krogmann (Chap. 7) has shown, preserving the Islamic religion and
culture while at the same time strengthening the economic and political
power of Muslim countries is the major goal of ICESCO. Unsurprisingly,
as a universalistic IO, it is not part of UNESCO’s major goals to “allow
the Islamic world to regain its leading role in building human civiliza-
tion” (ISESCO 2017, 7), even though “Islam, culture, and the state” do
play a role for UNESCO as well. Our results are thus in line with the idea
that cultural spheres are important in global education policies. However,
it remains an open question how important and effective ICESCO actu-
ally is in shaping education policies as well as systems in its member
countries.
The goals of SEAMEO are less clearly defined. It is focused on its
member countries and thereby on the particular region of Southeast Asia.
Education policy is considered important for the development of this
region, but it is again an open question why countries in this region do
not consider themselves to be well represented by the World Bank or
UNESCO. In contrast to these two IOs, the other four show much more
diversity in their major topics. Even though the ILO is focused on labor
issues, its communication seems to be spread more evenly over different
topics, and these topics address all countries in the world.
Education is a special policy field since it is related to the reproduction
of national or regional cultures. At least with respect to ICESCO, it is
quite reasonable to assume that the reason this IO exists is because of the
importance of Islamic civilization in the eyes of its member countries. An
interesting question is whether we would detect regional or culturally
specific IOs in other policy areas as well. If so, we could ask similar ques-
tions: What motivates countries to create and maintain activities in dedi-
cated IOs and to maintain and occupy specific thematic niches? Why do
these countries not consider themselves well represented by the major
universalistic IOs? Is education the only policy area in which, for exam-
ple, culture is so important that specialized IOs become active? This
might be an interesting research agenda for studies on IOs in other areas
of social policy.
Appendix
No. Topic Coherence Exclusivity
1 Assessment Program tool policy Module yes please tool
question use feed questionnaire saber
assessment goal analyze dimension
analysis identify interview
module
2 Privatization Public private Private public voucher
government sector subsidy fee loan for-
fund pay finance profit revenue charge
country cost service pay
3 Latin America Chile Mexico Colombia Salud anuales alianza
educacin state del Para financiamiento calidad
los nacional quality gasto seguro poblacin
estatal evaluacin
4 Neo-liberal growth Growth world country Freshwater liberalization
service bank trade avg. debt barter export
economy percent pop high technology
export access dioxide wine
5 Costs in Africa Education percent Pbet drc francophone
expenditure level high ababa Addis tte postbasic
school primary cost Madagascar recurrent
sector secondary Cameroon
6 Inclusion Education student Inclusive resilience
school child support disability impairment
immigrant need refugee mainstream
disability language adversity disable
special inclusion multicultural
7 Development, SE Education seameo Seameo tropmed seamolec
Asia Thailand country oecdunesco recsam
school Centre southeast searca
programme Malaysia thailands Brunei biotrop
development learn
8 ILO convention Des les dans que par qui Avait larticle avons
French convention travail ouvriers repos fabriques
pour Sur serait dautre dernire
avaient
9 Region: Former SU Education school Kazakhstan moes
student teacher review Lithuania Estonian
OECD republic high Lithuanian canary
secondary national Estonia gymnasium
mone unt
(continued)
(continued)
10 Women in Arabic Woman gender female MENA Yemen Egypt
countries labor country rate Morocco womens Algeria
region MENA man girl Lebanon Saudi Oman
Arabia
11 Latin America, School education Wei Honduras Salvador
non-tertiary primary secondary Nicaragua Guatemala
percent teacher Ethiopia quintile
country student rate enrollment Sierra Leone
level
12 PISA assessment Student performance Tableau kongchina
China Pisa country read gradient donnes
OECD level school shanghaichina bold
score science enjoyment annualise
slope macaochina
13 Assessment, average Education OECD student Latvia eag outlook latvian
and Latvia policy school secondary httpdxdoiorgen spotlight
high system average talis latvias yearolds Riga
national
14 Methods of data Datum indicator statistic Datum statistic indicator
collection use survey information statistical handbook
analysis source system classification UIS dataset
statistical collection internationally
15 Assessments Problem student solve Noncontinuous problem
dimensions Pisa item read funke mathematical
assessment text solver knowledge reading
question literacy science problemsolving
framework
16 Occupational Train skill sector Oecs nurse caricom
training, informal education percent Yunnan informal kur
work, global south informal labor worker trainee Lanka sri ghana
market development
17 Quality of lifelong Education learn quality Crossborder ria assurance
learning qualification system lifelong qualification
country policy IBRD the recognition
assurance national GAT NQFS NQF
lifelong
18 Teachers’ careers Teacher teach school Teacher profession
education professional induction teach
policy student professional career
development system reward bonus high
work performing retain
(continued)
(continued)
19 Training and Skill OECD train adult Diagnostic adult learning
European labor learn labor need Slovenias activate
market education market Flanders PES low skilled
work Italys SMEs activation
20 Maths-science Student school Pisa Self-beliefs country
performance country OECD economy ESCS IIIA BSJG
performance Macao self-reports
mathematics science truancy IIIB
index report nonimmigrant
21 Development and Bank world country Balkans hci ravallion mdgs
World Bank development research weve ida deininger
policy work poverty ington cpia
Washington economic worldbankorg
22 Tertiary and Bologna Education tertiary Teis internationalization
student high tertiary IBRD the tei
institution OECD cruch bologna
program university undergraduate doctoral
research review postgraduate
23 Development Bank World development Customary journalist insult
and norm violation right law medium pluralism news justice
bank human people newspaper criminal
legal state rights based shareholder
24 Local level Education school fund Subcentral bec budget
resource level local earmark territorial
budget government allocation district formula
system governance governance BOSDA
25 Latin America higher Education high university Internationalization
education research international Antioquia Antioquias
institution science UNITWIN interuniversity
country development Medellin drain Cuban
student scientist Cuba
26 Labour, train, Labour train ILO Seminar tripartite
development and development program biennium ILOs ILO Turin
worker country employment advisory rehabilitation
activity project worker symposium fellowship
27 Skills foreign born Adult skill immigrant Foreign born PIAAC
adults country OECD level technology rich native
proficiency literacy native born proficiency
language difference immigrant first
generation numeracy
second generation
(continued)
(continued)
28 Employment Israel Worker Israeli territory Samaria Judea Palestinian
Palestine conflict Israel Arab occupy Gaza Israeli occupy strip
Palestinian work Gaza Histadrut Israel territory
employment
29 State and trade law Law country may legal Nancial supra benets
service professional trustee qualications
bank provide state judicial ecommerce rst
agreement specic efciency
30 Workers’ skills and Skill job worker Saa anticipation
cognition education employer noncognitive mismatch
cognitive market work transversal skilling
occupation need emotional personality
cognitive
conscientiousness
31 Youth and health Youth young people Condom soul SRH Buddyz
program school health HIV AIDS sexually lovelife
work country world sexual parenthood gang
child
32 Evaluation and Assessment evaluation Appraisal self-evaluation
inspection education student summative evaluator
appraisal national formative inspectorate
teacher review system inspection evaluation
learn wwwoecdorgedu
evaluationpolicy ero
33 Teacher and digital Technology computer OER informatics digital
technology ICT learn digital multimedia computer
student teacher software hardware
information education computational nit ICTCFT
school
34 ILO, green Social country work Industrialize ILOs
development develop employment environmental pollution
need development green industrialization
policy ILO labor tripartite greening
constituent ILO
35 Children’s health Child health school Kyrgyz Tajikistan Bishkek
Central Asia social education MOH nutrition
program improve deworming malnutrition
intervention learn immunization Kyrgyzstan
development street
(continued)
(continued)
36 Trade unions Worker labor union Nonmanual labor
organization trade management
country work social undertaking union
relation problem collective conciliation
dispute organization
industrial arbitration
37 Problems of adult Literacy learn program Facilitator literate ESD UIL
learning community adult skill Tostan low literate prison
education learner literacy multilingual
people train illiterate
38 Convention and Work act convention Seaman seamens
workers insurance state office worker workmens vesselSsunday
may labor employment insure Rumania stoker
person furnace workman
39 Autonomy and University high HEIs HEC faculty self-
quality of education institution perception Irish HEA
universities student quality autonomy university
research system accreditation affiliate
academic college
40 Vocational training Train education system Xinjiang Moe Korean saber
and East Asia development skill country report Singapores
vocational policy systems approach for
government institution better education results
program Singapore TVE instructor
workforce
41 Antisemitism and Holocaust education Holocaust antisemitism
holocaust textbook history genocide Shoah Jew Nazi
curriculum genocide atrocity national
teach war conflict sozialismus perpetrator
study Hitler
42 Innovation Innovation education Innovation systemic
change student OECD innovate Thuringia
practice teacher innovative PIRSL math
country level point HEGESCO scratch
crossroad
43 Leadership School OECD teacher Wale Flemish leadership
education student leader talis Welsh Nusche
learn system review municipality SLO school
also leadership
(continued)
(continued)
44 East Asia, reforms, Education OECD country Reformer Shanghai
globalization and student high unite Japanese globalization
demography good state Japan MEXT demography Japans
school performer Japan CSE
45 Primary and Education school Jse sse Seia
secondary secondary country lowersecondary ondary
student percent teacher secondaire lewin ssa
primary learn system agepa pacic
46 ILO, conference Conference ILO Seafarer lLO maritime
programme work delegate director general
session country ship resolution
committee international conference ILO session
concern body
47 Study inequality School student Pisa Spss sas stq scq wfstr hisei
country OECD cent icq syntax cnt grp
mean index datum
sample
48 South Africa, Africa ICT south service Fixed line outgoing
development and development country egovernment Pretoria
telecommunication information access telecommunication
sector communication broadband SETAs
incoming ZAR estrategies
49 Development Project development Wbi cda sdv ieg ppd.
projects and knowledge community toolkit coalition dialogue
community process support activity subprojects wbis
good change staff
50 Brazil, adult Education adult Brazil Ramaa adultos educao ale
education learn educao state train sra confintea eja
federal literacy UNESCO ministrio belm formao
51 Child care, parents Child care early service Roma nonroma ag
and kindergarten education Roma kindergarten preschool
parent family parental pedagogue care
childhood country ECEC Romania
52 Entrepreneurship Program business train EET entrepreneur venture
entrepreneurship entrepreneurial
entrepreneur entrepreneurship
evaluation participant acceleration startups
entrepreneurial EPAG startup mentor
student group
(continued)
(continued)
53 Vocational training Train education OECD VET apprentice
and apprenticeship vocational vet skill apprenticeship Kuczera
review program work based WBL PET
student apprenticeship Fachhochschulen
postsecondary Musset
54 Returns and Education country high Quantile return
overeducation percent labor return unobserved TFP OLS
level school wage firm overeducation
overeducated premium
equation payoff
55 War, employment Country economic Postwar depression prewar
and wages worker work may underdeveloped PRP
increase social problem wartime automation war
wage employment manpower coal
56 Russia and Bulgaria, Education school Russian Moscow Russia
curriculum educational system Bulgarian ill votec fhe of
train new curriculum the Sofia Russias
change problem
information
57 Earnings, tertiary Education country Glance tertiary type
and non-tertiary student OECD level nontertiary graduation
secondary educational ISCED earnings USD
tertiary program upper descend fulltime
institution
58 Agriculture, mobile Mobile information Dlrs farmer mlab mlabs
information service farmer market traceability mobile
access technology smallholder app phone
system agricultural use sms
59 Banks and money Financial literacy Saving Lusardi financial
education impact lottery simulator money
survey money group save debit behavior
behavior bank saving takeup
60 Selection of teachers Teacher education Ceart ilounesco allegation
recommendation highereducation ece ssr
committee teach ceartrsectoendocx
country government vicechairperson zenkyo
school ILO dialogue
organization
(continued)
(continued)
61 School, training and Education course school Pronatec dominican uasd
university secondary study train danish polytechnic fic
university work wyszego szkolnictwa
student vocational oraz amks
62 Early childhood and Child early childhood Ecce staffchild toolbox
care education ECEC quality ecec samuelsson melqo
care development staff childhood whriki
curriculum kindergarten pramling
63 Islam, culture and Right state organization Islamic Muslim ISESCO
the state social world Islam declaration OIC
international action dignity religion covenant
Islamic cultural human globalization
64 Support national Education development Efa capefa Dakar
development country national policy postconflict caped
plan UNESCO Support sectorwide jomtien fpe
Programme train unescos nfe
65 Methods of data Item student school Pisa Booklet coder NPMS
analysis sample country scale parameter stratum item
test datum use nonresponse verifier
marker reliability
66 Language and Language read student Syllable phonological
linguistics text write word phoneme alphabet
teacher teach learn decipher grapheme
grade verlan ARED CEB
blackboard
67 Emotion, Learn research Emotion neuroscience
neuroscience and knowledge education service learning ILE music
cognition study practice student inspire correlational
vol environment work experimentation art
cognition
68 State, primary, Education state school DPEP Catarina Bengal
district and teacher primary percent Kerala Pradesh Santa
teacher district study Orissa Assam Karnataka
student level ICDS
69 University, Education university Wroclaw Andalusia Sonora
innovation, high development lombardy basque
development regional research Arizona catalonia hei
innovation institution paso Penang
OECD student
70 Monitoring primary Education country Sdg sdgs gem parity uis
education school global child gpi oda gpe aymara efa
learn low development
monitor primary
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10
Education as Cultural Frame
John W. Meyer
Introduction
The chapters of this book address the dramatic historical and contempo-
rary expansion of education around the world. They cover the long-term
rise of compulsory education, the international institutions that arise to
support education, and the variation among countries and world regions
in the process. They approach the problems with an admirable mix of
often-innovative qualitative and quantitative methods.
The book is theoretically eclectic, but unifying themes underlie much
of its argumentation and evidence. First, educational expansion reflects a
general cultural process, organized at global, regional, international, and
national levels. Beyond the global influences discussed in the literature,
the chapters here call special attention to the significance of world cul-
tural regions.
J. W. Meyer (*)
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

268 J. W. Meyer
Second, the various supranational processes supporting educational

expansion are structured around linkages between countries and between
countries and organs of regional and global society. The patterns of
expansion are created around network relationships between countries—
and between countries and regional and global society.
Third, all the linkages transmit broad cultural forces more than nar-
rowly economic ones. This takes on a great deal of force against a modern
literature that tends anachronistically to emphasize economic drivers,
meanings, and effects. In contrast, the chapters of this book emphasize
the universalistic and compulsory character of educational expansion as
targeted on broad (and religious) notions of the public good.
In these comments I review the general question and some of the issues
addressed in the chapters here. I discuss the global expansion of educa-
tion in general, the problem of the weak relation between differentiated
economies and integrated education, and the odd quality of compulsion
in the nominally free society. I conclude with comments on regional and
cultural variation, and reflections on possible effects of the weakening of
the hegemony of the liberal world order in which the expansion of educa-
tion has been rooted.
he Phenomenon at Issue: Integrated

T
Education in a Differentiated Economy
and Global Society
The rise of education as a central institution is a dramatic element in the
development and spread of modernity. Much is known descriptively
about this change, which is in the taken-for-granted background of this
book. I review the matter, which frames the studies here. Because con-
temporary people take education for granted, many questions about its
expansion remain unexplained: more attention is given to cases where
expansion does not happen than to the massive numbers of cases and
situations in which it does. Because academics also take education and its
expansion for granted, analyses of modern society (e.g. as an “economy”)
are distorted: Baker (2014) usefully addresses the matter by calling
10 Education as Cultural Frame 269
contemporary society the “schooled society,” rather than generally mod-

ern, or capitalist, or free, or democratic.
The expansion of education has been a striking feature of the entire
post-Enlightenment period. It characterized the Western world in the
nineteenth century, and more peripheral regions in the first half of the
twentieth century. The rate of growth increased dramatically in the liberal
era after World War II and intensified even more in the neoliberal period
since the 1980s (compare Ruggie 1982 and Ruggie 1998). Rapid growth
came to characterize every country in the world.
Most research on the overall expansion, as outlined above, stresses the
global character of the diffusion. A striking contribution of the studies
here is to call attention to its regional and cultural structuration and vari-
ation, as it moved beyond its Western core. An interesting and important
question raised is whether such variation may increase with the weaken-
ing of the hegemony of the West and the rise of alternative regional and
cultural areas.
Several features of the overall global expansion call for attention; they
lie in the background of the studies here:
1. Expansion covers a wide span of life and its dimensions. It occurs
across age levels, consuming substantial parts of the typical individual life
course. Primary school enrollments grew steadily over the past two cen-
turies, and then rapidly after the war, becoming practically universal
(Meyer et al. 1992). Beyond an elementary school focus, mass secondary
school became common, and in many countries, universal (Barro and
Lee 2015). Higher education grew exponentially, and by now more than
a third of young people in the world experience its blessings (Schofer and
Meyer 2005).
Expansion has also been endemic apart from the normal educational
cycle. Lifelong learning became standard in both policy and practice
(Jakobi 2009). Preschool enrollments grew rapidly (Wotipka et al. 2017).
Clear school-like arrangements expanded in noneducational settings
(Scott and Meyer 1991). And beyond education in established national
settings, emphases on and practices for education in irregular forms
developed dramatically—education for refugees, the disabled, the mar-
ginal, the immigrant, and the inhabitant of conflictful societies (Lerch
and Buckner 2018). Even the very beginning and end of life became
270 J. W. Meyer
targets of school-like instruction, with prenatal education and education

for death arising as doctrines, programs, and possibilities.
Further, the agendas of education expanded to cover more and more
dimensions of life. In higher education, fields covered move from a few
matters of rather sacred significance down into more and more aspects of
mundane life (Frank and Meyer 2020). Farming, forestry, and mining
move into the university, as do many aspects of business life. Practical
matters of engineering become relevant, and the university student can
study the proper design of the kitchen or the toilet. In mass education,
similarly, details of proper social life and interaction are now included,
along with the niceties of high language and literature. Overall, it is dif-
ficult to think of dimensions of life that are not now schooled (Baker 2014).
2. Education had, and has, mostly universalistic meanings in its claims
and its practical diffusion, and takes common forms around the world.
Throughout its history, the idea of the university was commonly held
across Christendom. It is now established across the whole world society
(Frank and Meyer 2020). So universities could be assessed in general—
and are now ranked as “world-class” in a surprisingly unitary way (Shin
and Kehm 2012). Similarly, the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) or International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement (IEA) rankings on the subjects of mass educa-
tion imply common conceptions of what education is.
In practice, this means that university curricula, evolving in Western
Christendom and expanding around the world, have strikingly common
features (Frank and Meyer 2020; Frank and Gabler 2006). Originally,
theology and law (canon and civil) were central defining elements of
what it meant to be a university, along with medicine and philosophy (of
lower standing). With secularization, expansion, and diffusion around
the world, philosophy expanded and differentiated to include the human-
ities and sciences. In the twentieth century—especially its last half—the
social sciences expanded rapidly (Drori and Moon 2006). In all these
cases, expansion was worldwide, so it is possible for any intellectual to
read and understand the catalogue of courses for any university anywhere
else (Frank and Meyer 2020). In contrast, the university’s organizational
structure varies sharply in tune with national political arrangements and
is often opaque to outsiders (Clark 1983).
The same principle holds with mass education. Curricula and curricu-
lar change show strikingly common elements around the world, which
explains why the fashionable tests can be employed on a widespread basis
(Benavot et al. 1991; Kamens and McNeely 2010). Curricular patterns
and plans can be communicated everywhere and discussed in interna-
tional fora (Rosenmund 2006). Thirty percent of an elementary school
curriculum would be devoted to national language(s). Foreign language
(usually English, if that is not a national language) makes up an addi-
tional element. Mathematics might be fifteen percent (now increasingly
including computer science), and science perhaps ten. Social science,
shifting over the decades from history and geography toward civics and
social studies, and sometimes including religion or moral education,
might be another ten percent (Wong 1991). Art and music would usually
be included. Occasionally practical training—for example, in hygiene—
would be involved. The larger point is that essentially everything involved
could be understood and probably enacted by a reasonably experienced
educator anywhere in the world.
Obviously, when we move from institutionalized curricular patterns
down to the specifics of practice, there are major disconnections. The
term decoupling is used to reflect the great gaps between high policy,
often attuned to global standards, and practice (Bromley and Powell
2012). The pretenses of the historical or contemporary university to uni-
versality are always at some distance from what can be approved or car-
ried out in practice (e.g. Clark 2006). And in mass education, the claims
of high curricular policy are likely to be very distant from the mundane
capabilities of local teachers and students. In any case, a contemporary
teacher, discussing major environmental or social problems, is unlikely to
go into detail explaining to the students the sins of their parents, and
indeed may identify more with these parents than with policymakers far
off in the national capital. But up and down the line from policy to local
practice almost all the participants aspire to notions of education as a
high and universal enterprise. There are many claims to being different,
but not to lie outside the global cultural canopy. Almost everywhere, it is
intended that education be “for credit” and that its credits be widely
accepted.
272 J. W. Meyer
Interpreting Expansion from the Wrong End

of the Telescope: The Economistic View
Education is now so firmly institutionalized that contemporary people
take it for granted as a central and defining component of the life course.
And given that contemporary society is reflexively analyzed in economic
terms, education is seen as an economic commodity, variously profitable
for the individual (lifetime income) and society (gross domestic product).
Unfortunately, intellectual analysts of this situation take the same view,
seeing education as produced and expanded by economic forces and as
providing principally valuable effects. This is certainly now true of educa-
tional effects, as contemporary societies make it so by definition. They
create certificational rules rewarding schooling, and build valued roles
out of the knowledge legitimated by education. Serious performances by
political or economic elites are properly made on the advice of penum-
bras of consultants following in the train of the nominal decisionmaker.
Even ordinary people, assuming the modern posture of actorhood,
require schooled advice of occupational, psychological, physical, mental,
and familial therapists. The result is that education, whatever its utility, is
valued and rewarded: it is a matter of political and cultural construction,
and difficult to assess as a matter of narrowly “economic” value.
Beyond the constructed effects of education, a main thrust of the stud-
ies in this book is that the rise of education is a political and cultural
matter more than a narrowly economic one. Even with all the economiz-
ing ideology in the field, economic development is not the core driving
force, and the studies here provide a valuable corrective (see also Meyer
et al. 1992; Schofer and Meyer 2005; and Ramirez and Boli 1987). The
major international organizations supporting educational expansion
focus on broad cultural development, though with regional variations
(Chaps. 1, 5–8). Educational development itself historically has Western
cultural roots and its forward movement varies with cultural contexts
(Chaps. 1, 2, 5, and 9).
These processes reach down into the details of real life. Parents, for
example, routinely prepare their children to participate in the cognitive
development enterprises that are educationally central (Schaub 2010).
An older world, in which children are to be obedient and quiet, tends to

disappear. Similarly, contemporary society is seen as an occupational
arena for which education is crucial and required as an entry point, so
that educational success is the central source of success and social status
in life (Shavit et al. 2007).
All the rationalized social structure of a modern society tends now to
be assessed in terms of a unified value scheme, heavily organized around
a common currency. There is a tendency to think of it all, and measure it
all, as if it were an economy. So people have “jobs,” and go to “work” and
“earn a living.” They are entrants in a “labor market,” and their individual
and aggregate behavior can be assessed in terms of “productivity.” Their
behavior adds up to a national “gross domestic product.” And with global
integration it now adds up to a “world economic product.” None of this
language makes much substantive sense in describing modern profession-
alized occupational systems, far from what was once considered labor.
But it all tends to be seen as somehow economic in character, with
nineteenth-century mental models of society as made up of producers of
shoes and potatoes who engage in market exchanges around competitive
prices. This poorly fits the contemporary developed world, and it makes
less and less sense in the Third World. But it is the institutionalized fic-
tion of the global public culture and its analysts.
In practice, modern societies are dominated, not by agricultural or
industrial production, but by what is called the “service sector.”
Occupational positions are in mass and higher education, medical care,
child care, recreation, social welfare, research, administration, and above
all else all sorts of governmental activity. Most of this activity cannot
reasonably be seen in classic terms as economic labor, jobs, work, or pro-
ductivity. It is often seen as somehow professional, and this category of
roles is central and rapidly expanding in most countries of the world. The
definitions of work involved rely heavily on education. If, in the culture
of modernity, an important but invisible “nothing” must be done, it is
especially important that a properly schooled and certified person does it.
The contemporary misinterpretation of education as economic in ori-
gin and consequence leads to mistaken historical interpretations, as if
economic forces lay behind the long-term explosion of schooling. But
actual historical research dismisses such anachronistic theories, and the
274 J. W. Meyer
studies in this book are true to the broad historical record. Both mass and
elite education spread outward from the world’s cultural core, but not
particularly from economic centers. For instance, the great center of the
industrial revolution—the United Kingdom—was by no means central
in the spread of either elite or mass education. And within this polity,
protestant Scotland was more advanced than England. Both looked up,
in terms of public education, to Prussia (Smith 2021), by no means an
economic center.
The long history of higher education starts with the medieval religious
system, and religious aspects of the polity, not with economic arrange-
ments. Education was, and in good part remains to this day, a secular
parallel to religious salvation. In the nineteenth century, further secular-
ization linked education to expanding individual citizenship, and nation-
building exercises created further secular parallels between religion and
nation-states (Ramirez and Boli 1987). Links between education and the
economy really developed only, and modestly, in the early twentieth cen-
tury, with the rise of business schools, of schooled managerialism, and
modern rationalized organization (Moon and Wotipka 2006; Bromley
and Meyer 2015). Only after World War II did this system expand into
the contemporary scene in which the profane world of business is legiti-
mated enough, and rationalized enough, to become securely linked to
elevated schooling. Beyond the United States, failures of the first half the
twentieth century exposed a weakened Europe to an American cultural
invasion with its liberal (and later neoliberal) linkage of the private to the
public good (Djelic 1998).
In the same postwar period, liberal dominance expanded to much of
the noncommunist world, and with it educational systems were rapidly
founded and grew. They were linked, both in ideology and in practice, to
economic forces and economic growth. During the early part of this
period, mass education came to be seen as central to economic productiv-
ity (Harbison and Myers 1964), and international organizations like the
World Bank celebrated the linkage, as the chapters here note. Higher
education was seen much more skeptically from an economic perspec-
tive, and growth was regarded with suspicion (e.g. Collins 1979; Boudon
1973). But with neoliberalism, and the valuation of the educationally
produced “knowledge society” higher education itself was redefined as a

core source of economic growth (Stehr 1994; Nowotny et al. 2001).
The studies here develop a picture of education as having Western cul-
tural roots and diffusing variably around the world, aided and hindered
by cultural, not principally economic forces. This is a valuable contribu-
tion to a distorted literature.
he Human Right to Be Compelled

T
to Go to School
The chapters of this book return again and again to a very distinctive and
revealing feature of mass education around the world: it arises, expands,
and diffuses not only as a general and standardized or unified value or
practice, but as a compulsory institution (Chaps. 1–3, 9). All members of
society of a certain age are required to participate. Early on, this is justi-
fied as in the collective good of religious society seen as a religious polity.
With secularization, the ground shifted and it became an obligation of
citizenship. Over the last two centuries, this obligation linked to citizen-
ship remains, but in addition education increasingly is formulated as an
individual right—first, a right of citizenship within the charismatic
nation-state, and then (with the Education for All movement) a right of
all human persons, and thus a claim against the whole world
(Chabbott 2003).
The compulsory character of mass education indicates the extent to
which education should be seen as both an individual and a collective
good: it is the one basic right that is also an obligation. Further, it is seen
as linked to universalistic cultural membership in modern society, not
principally its differentiated role structure. This main theme of this book
is thus reinforced by the standardized ubiquity, not only of education,
but of compulsory education.
We can contrast this situation against several alternatives, each of
which appears in partial form in education around the world.
1. A first alternative would be one in which education was a valued
enterprise, and led to success in some domains, but not required of
276 J. W. Meyer
everyone. This arrangement is common in agrarian societies and empires.

The idea is that elites, or at least some political and religious elites, require
education in core cultural elements and activities. Other elites, including
economic ones, do not. And the masses of people, involved in rural or
urban labor, certainly do not.
Education around the modern world runs beyond this model. Elites of
various sorts certainly get more education than ordinary people, and the
schooling involved varies from elite to elite—the requirements are less
strict for business elites than professional ones. But the distinctive educa-
tional features of the contemporary model are that basic education is
prescribed for everyone, and that even elites must pass through it. A
schooled baseline of membership in society is thus generated. The dis-
tinctive world of compulsory education is a general world model, required
of practically all: explaining the spread of this system is a focal theme of
this book.
A basic theme of Western Christendom emphasizes that every proper
member of the community has a soul requiring salvation, and thus that
everyone should be baptized. Even infants could, via surrogates, thus
acquire the faith—as part of the moral community seen as a congrega-
tion, not the restricted elite “society.” With the Enlightenment “discovery
of society,” the whole principle is secularized in mass education and
extended to all. The link to the nation-state means that the furthest and
most marginal people must be educationally incorporated with zeal—the
former peasants must become Frenchmen (Weber 1976). An old empire
would not have worried so much about weak peripherals.
The chapters of this book, thus, focus less on the expansion of educa-
tion as a practical enrollment matter, and attend to the expansion of the
principle of compulsion. In authoritarian contexts, the compulsion is to
produce conforming participation: in liberal ones, democratic participa-
tion. From the point of view of Foucault (1991), the two are very similar
strategies of social control (Miller and Rose 2008). The same view is held
by Friedenberg (1965), who sees the compulsory American secondary
school as close to a prison of democracy. It is indeed a striking thing that
contemporary societies, valuing the freedom of the individual, imprison
the young who have done nothing wrong. It seems that the Western
notion of original sin, extended even to infants and requiring their special
salvation through baptism, extends rather directly to compulsory educa-

tion: ignorance is sin, secularized.
2. A second alternative to sweeping standardized compulsory educa-
tion would be to tie education closely to the differentiated roles making
up the modern society. This can be done by linking schooling to social
origins, under the assumption that the young will enter society in the
roles of their parents. One can imagine rules formalizing such arrange-
ments. Historically, such patterns, formalized or not, are quite common,
and education has been very differentially allocated to different social
strata. Thus American states created distinct schools—or no schools—for
black people. And in many contexts, rural children have very different
educational rights and resources than urban ones. Similarly, historically,
male and female students had different prospects.
The advocates of compulsory education historically attacked such
arrangements in preference for democratic or undemocratic equality.
Most of these patterns, seen as discriminatory, are treated in the contem-
porary world as unacceptable, and they are the object of much reform.
Individual rights principles are globally established, and nationally rooted
(in principle if not in practice). The human rights movement gives great
attention to rights dimensions related to education (Elliott 2007, 2011,
2014; Stacy 2009; Lauren 2011), and the Education for All movement
enters into the various contemporary lists of Millennium or Sustainable
Development Goals.
3. A distinct alternative educational model relates variable schooling
opportunities to the prospective future of the young person, rather than
social background. This is less of a violation of egalitarian principles,
though it often sorts students out in the same unequal way. Systems of
this kind sort students depending on their prospects or choices: those
going on to the university get academic training, while others may be
prepared for apprentice training and working-class roles. These sorts of
systems have been strong in the Germanic countries. They are historically
admired as efficient, and criticized as inegalitarian—and given the global
dominance of democratic ideologies, have tended to weaken over time in
preference for comprehensive standardized compulsory education
(Benavot 1983).
278 J. W. Meyer
4. A special note must be made about the strange history of education

for males and females. In many historical contexts, there is no explana-
tory problem. Schooling relates to forms of public status and authority
that are reserved for males—clerical roles, and legal ones, in the West, for
example. Arrangements of such sorts are common: gender roles link to
educational differentiation. An evolved system with separate and usually
unequal schooling for male and female students—often with somewhat
differentiated curricula given the distinctive roles for which males and
females are to be prepared—still might make a kind of functional sense.
A further evolution, with essentially similar training but in segregated
schools, now characterizes a few parts of the Islamic world. But common
forms of education, everywhere, are now integrated and coeducational,
and have been for many years. This seems normal to moderns. But it is
very odd, seen from economistic and functional points of view: if men
and women are to play quite different occupational and familial roles in
society—a normal understanding over the last two centuries—why are
they schooled in such similar ways? Tyack and Hansot (1992) forcefully
raise this question in their discussion of coeducation in historical
American society. It is not well answered in the subsequent literature.
The answer is clearly that basic education is about membership in the
modern society, seen as a sort of religious-like community. It is not about
the particular roles people will play—jobs they will have, their distinct
child-care roles, and so on throughout the differentiated society.
Over and over, the chapters here show this central point: the core role
of compulsion, the cultural rather than economic or organizational char-
acter of global and regional policy structures, and the globally and region-
ally standardized character of the schooling impulse.
Institutions of Education as Supranational

and Global
As an empirical matter, the spread of education is a world process. Some
of this is a matter of international compulsion, with colonial domination
creating (and restricting) schooling, or with postcolonial pressures from
world institutions. Much more has a voluntaristic quality, as national

states see education as central to their own coherence. The theory or ide-
ology of the modern nation-state makes education important: mass edu-
cation as constructing, on the run, citizens out of people disparate in
religion, ethnicity, and culture; universities as creating and staffing the
apparatuses of a nation-state. With both mass and elite education,
mimetic copying of standard forms was crucial.
First, constructing a national culture is a difficult business, and so is
creating professionalized elites. Available forms, reflecting arrangements
that have worked elsewhere, are of great use. None of us, for example,
would be able to invent a nominally relevant local cultural template for a
national system of criminal law. And while local educators might be able
to create curricula adapted to a few specific aspects of the local ecology,
they cannot create doctoral training programs out of whole cloth, or sec-
ondary school curricula for biology.
Second, given the weakness of most national status, and fragmentation
of national cultural systems, legitimacy is a main problem. Highly devel-
oped educational forms in successful developed societies are much more
likely to seem legitimate than particular structures with subgroup legiti-
macy in a fragmented Third World country. Students and parents are
likely to have special respect for linguistic and cultural material validated
in the global cores. In contrast, there can be great inconsistency and con-
flict in an attempt to formulate a definitive national language. It is easier
to agree on what is English than on what is to be the official local language.
There is much direct copying, country to country, around the world,
that reflects the old hierarchies of the colonial system (but note Chap. 2
and elsewhere), and the newer ones of current global stratification. The
studies here suggest network relations structured by region, cultural
background, and development level (Chaps. 1, 2, and 5–9). Future
research could examine, beyond state-to-state linkages, the effects of pro-
fessional networks. These have elaborated enormously in recent decades,
and over and above national influences integrate world ideologies of what
it means to teach history or biology in mass or higher education. A good
First-World university could, with little difficulty, generate complete cur-
ricula for a needy Third World one: some of them, it seems, do.
280 J. W. Meyer
Thus, the models put forward in world centers—established aid pro-

grams from leading countries, professional communities, and so on—are
likely to serve as models for policy if not practice, in weaker contexts.
Beyond nation-to-nation ties, policies legitimated in major interna-
tional organizations are likely to have even more official standing. The
studies in this book give special attention to such fora: country ties may
reflect common immersion in international organizational communities.
These are of great interest in codifying the world educational culture that
helps drive expansion everywhere.
The studies here suggest that some international organizations focus
on economic development as a core purpose of education. As one might
expect, the World Bank thinks in this way. But the major observation
(Chaps. 5 and 9) is that even the international organizations focused on
development give much attention to education as a matter of broad indi-
vidual and cultural development, not training for particular (e.g. eco-
nomic or occupational) roles. And the regional organizations studied
here focus even more on cultural matters—in partial reaction to a liberal
and Western global culture (Chaps. 7 and 8). Interestingly, these organi-
zations, while in part reactive, seem not to formulate core aspects of mass
or elite education as unacceptable. They advocate difference, but not
direct opposition.
Conclusion
The studies here address the global diffusion of education—a dramatic
worldwide change. They address the long-term and worldwide character
of the change, and the international organizations that now manage and
promote it. These are principally modern, though the old colonial empires
provided some structuration (the current effects of which appear empiri-
cally to be moderate). They especially attend to the network of interna-
tional relationships along which education diffused historically. Chains
of power and culture formulated patterns that still operate, now in part
through regional organizations.
Along the way, the studies show, the pattern of diffusion changes, and
diffusion changes the pattern. Originally Western, what we now call
education (both mass and elite) spreads depending on cultural areas of

the world—faster in closer peripheries, slower in more separate and inde-
pendent ones. Over time, the regional differences crystallize with distinc-
tive regional organizations—a focus of several chapters here (particularly
Chaps. 7 and 8).
Looking to a future in which the liberal Western-centered global order
is less hegemonic, we might speculate that along with continued diffu-
sion of global standardization, sharper oppositions might arise. Models
around the world might be formulated in explicit codifications of criti-
cism of global models as Western, Christian, and/or American, and
reflecting hegemony rather than universal understandings. As such forms
of consciousness spread, we may expect a slowing of global diffusion,
perhaps accompanied by the intensification of regional ones. The studies
of this book certainly suggest that network patterns, which obviously
drive diffusion, can also change or transform it.
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right holder.
11
Isomorphism, ‘Cultural Spheres’,
and Education Systems: A Brief
Summary and Concluding Remarks
Introduction1
In this chapter, we present an overview of the empirical results presented
in this volume. We begin with a summary of our theoretical arguments
and research design in the subsequent section of this chapter. We argue in
1
SFB 1342.
M. Windzio (*)
K. Martens

favor of a combination of sociological neo-institutionalism with a con-

cept of global cultural diversity. In our view, culture might be an impor-
tant moderator of the global diffusion and institutionalization of both
education systems and guiding principles of education. We briefly sum-
marize the results of our analyses and juxtapose results and theoretical
arguments. Since our results cover various aspects of global education
and the theoretical arguments potentially allow a variety of different pre-
dictions, we also discuss whether the results are overall in line or in con-
tradiction to these arguments.
In our view, the empirical results corroborate the theoretical assump-
tions of neo-institutionalism. At the same time, cultural diversity and
cultural difference do indeed play a crucial role in moderating the diffu-
sion process of Western educational institutions, ideational frames, and
leitmotifs. In the concluding section of this chapter, we give an outlook
for future research and argue that research on global education should
take up the challenge and develop more sophisticated concepts of global
culture, that are accessible to measurement and to relational methods of
social network analysis, dimensional analysis, typology building, and
classification.
ecapturing the Theoretical Approach

R
and Research Design
Our theoretical concept follows sociological neo-institutionalism (Meyer
and Rowan 1977; Meyer et al. 1997). In this perspective, institutions
structure our taken-for-granted knowledge and our social order. During
the transition into modernity, modern rational institutions became
highly efficient bureaucracies and require appropriately educated and
specialized administrative staff. Once established, these rational and
bureaucratic institutions seem to take on a life of their own; rationaliza-
tion became self-perpetuating and self-reinforcing. Citizens adapted to
following the formalized rules, where the administrative staff operates in
an “iron cage” (DiMaggio and Powell 1983) or “steel-hard casing” (Weber
1972) of depersonalization and dehumanization. A “caste” of managers,
11 Isomorphism, ‘Cultural Spheres’, and Education Systems… 287
civil servants, and functionaries has monopolized political and economic

power. Yet, this form of social order allows the organization of knowl-
edge, science, and technology in a highly efficient way. The same is true
for the economy and military. Following this, modern capitalism and
bureaucracies tend to spread over the world. Most International
Organizations (IOs) also show these institutional characteristics, so coun-
tries that aim to become acknowledged members of these IOs tend to
adapt their own institutional structures—at least as a performative act of
“myth and ceremony” (Meyer and Rowan 1977). These processes recently
became obvious in terms of expansion of higher education and its effect
on core characteristics of a society, for example, the rationalization of
society and state, social and political mobilization as well as global inte-
gration by membership in IOs (Schofer et al. 2021).
There is considerable empirical evidence on the globalization of ratio-
nal institutions, in particular with respect to education (Meyer et al.
1992). This evidence corroborates the basic idea of neo-institutionalism.
Indeed, Western modern rational and bureaucratic organizations tend to
spread around the world. Even the fact that adopting an institution
occurs just at the “front stage” (Goffman 1959) in some countries, while
their actual performance follows traditional routines and practices, is in
line with the theory. It seems that these countries simply do have to play
along with the game. They need to acquire legitimacy in the IOs they are
a member in but also in their domestic population.
In our research, we started from sociological neo-institutionalism and
enhanced the argument with a stronger focus on global cultural diversity.
Max Weber already noticed the spread of Western rational culture and
bureaucratic institutions around the globe, and he was interested in how
different cultures related to rationalization (Weber 1972). These cultures
developed along the lines of different religious views of the world and the
afterworld. According to Weber, Protestant sects in Europe and North
America and their specific theological approach to the problem of the
theodicy initiated the cultural development toward rationalization, which
is why Weber used the term “occidental rationalism”. The occidental cul-
ture took a very specific developmental path. Modern Western individu-
alism, capitalism, and means–ends rationality was not necessarily
appreciated in other cultural traditions. As studies in anthropology on
trade and exchange (Mauss 1967; Fiske 1991, chp. 14) and recent inter-
pretations of the history of economic thinking suggest, regarding “mar-
kets as morality-free zones” (Bowles 2017, 25) is rather inappropriate to
human nature (Turner 2021, 110, 183). Yet, this is exactly what happens
in today’s highly dynamic markets, particularly in financial markets and
stock exchanges. Another example of the difference between culture as a
legitimizing foundation of bureaucratic authority and both the legal state
as well as societies based on lineages as the fundamental units of social
organization is the response toward rectification of transgressions.
Modern institutions operate sine ira et studio, without particular social
obligations and emotions (Weber 1972, 129). In contrast, in societies
based upon kinship there is a much lower tendency to accept a punish-
ment executed by a nonmember of one’s kin group: “Punishment by a
nonmember of a member’s misbehavior may itself be considered a trans-
gression requiring rectification or inviting retaliation” (Bowles 2017,
141). Social order based on extended kinship groups was historically the
norm rather than the exception, also in the northern countries, for exam-
ple, Scotland and Ireland (Weiner 2013), and are comparatively impor-
tant even today in some cultures (Haidt 2012; Inglehart 2018, 81–82).
After the occidental rationalism became unleashed in the West, however,
capitalism and institutionalized bureaucracies emerged in an astonish-
ingly short historical period. Positive aspects of this development are
enlightenment, progress in science and technology as well as civil rights
and liberties at an unprecedented scale (Pinker 2018), at least for citizens
in Western democracies. The flipside of the coin implies bureaucratically
organized atrocities (Bauman 1989), mass exploitation, and environmen-
tal deterioration. Consequently, anthropologists recently described the
highly individualistic European and North American culture as WEIRD
(western, educated, industrialized, resourceful, democratic) (Schulz et al.
2019; Henrich 2020). Specific moral orientations come along with this
WEIRD culture. Moral emotions are triggered by the evaluation of
actions in six dimensions of what Haidt calls the “moral matrix”, and the
relative weight of each dimension of this matrix considerably differs
across cultures. The WEIRD “liberal moral matrix” puts substantial
weight on the dimensions of care–harm, liberty–oppression, and fair-
ness–cheating. In contrast, loyalty–betrayal, authority–subversion, and
sanctity–degradation, which are quite important, for example, in India

(Haidt 2012, 121–22), are not valued high, if not even rejected (Haidt
2012, 351).
Given these considerable average differences in cultural orientations
between the WEIRD culture and other cultures (Henrich 2020, chap. 6),
why should there be an undamped diffusion of Western institutions? If
the legitimacy of such institutions requires specific cultural conditions, it
will be likely that different cultures moderate the speed of the diffusion
process, even if the process itself is hard to impede. This might hold espe-
cially in the institutional field of education because of its crucial role in
the intergenerational reproduction of culture.
We developed our concept of ‘cultural spheres’ based on existing cul-
tural typologies that suggest a wide-ranging set of characteristics for a
country’s culture. In our standardized analyses, our methodological
approach was to recode cultural characteristics into binary variables and
to generate a two-mode network of cultural proximity. In so doing, we
extracted fuzzy-set clusters of global cultures from the data. Moreover,
analyzing documents on educational issues and programs published by
IOs, we combined standardized and nonstandardized methods of text
analysis. In addition to the macro-quantitative approach, which included
most countries in the world, our qualitative research design is based on a
2 × 2 table. One dimension was ‘derivative vs. dedicated’ IOs; the second
dimension was whether these organizations were open to any state or
restricted by specific criteria, such as geographical position or religion
(Windzio and Martens 2021).
We analyzed whether the valued network of cultural proximity had an
influence on the diffusion of compulsory education, whether there are
different trajectories of adjusting the length of compulsory education and
whether globalization affects the performance of secondary education
systems. Moreover, we investigated regional clusters in the OECD dis-
course on education, which differ according to similarity in economic
and cultural conditions. Using qualitative methods, we checked similari-
ties and differences in ideational framing of the education purpose in
four selected IOs, what kind of ideational framing the SEAMEO and the
ICESCO apply, both of which are not universalistic organizations, and
whether we find different frames when we analyze these documents using

standardized methods of text analysis.
ummarizing Empirical Results in the Light

S
of the Theory
The chapters collected in our volume focus on various issues but are inte-
grated by our theoretical framework outlined in Chap. 1. Each of the
nine empirical chapters presents empirical results related to our theoreti-
cal framework.
Chapter 2 investigates diffusion of compulsory education from 1789
to 2010 and shows that there are strong and consistent effects of similar-
ity in the cultural spheres network, whereas there is no effect of ties in the
network of colonial legacies. Moreover, the cultural clusters ‘WEIRD’
and ‘Catholic, Spanish-speaking’, but also ‘Eastern Europe’ show much
higher adoption rates than ‘dominantly Muslim’ countries, or countries
that are ‘not dominantly Muslim African/East Asian’. Since GDP per
capita and levels of democratization have been controlled in this analysis,
results indicate that cultural similarity does matter in the diffusion pro-
cess. The five cultural spheres we extracted from the data by using two-
mode network analysis do indeed show considerably different inclinations
to adopt compulsory education. State organized compulsory education
originated in Europe and Western countries, then quickly spread among
‘Catholic, Spanish-speaking’, and ‘Eastern European’ countries. The cul-
tural spheres of ‘dominantly Muslim’ and ‘not dominantly Muslim
African/East Asian’ countries lagged behind in this process. And this is
what we expected according to our theory. Transferring important tasks
to the state and public institutions and thereby exposing your children to
a more or less standardized curriculum and giving them access to literacy
and mass communication might accelerate the process of individualiza-
tion and thereby could support the ‘Westernization’ of culture and soci-
ety. Moreover, the role of the state in the Islamic tradition could be
different from the Western tradition. Certainly, imposing shari’a law on
the society or regarding the state as a caliphate where the leader’s
government should work on the realization of a divine law and order is

close to the ideology of Islamism rather than Islam (Tibi 1994, 2012).
However, it “ is likely that many mainstream Muslims would theoreti-
cally welcome a renewal of the caliphate, but feel that it is not for them
to bring this about” (Silverstein 2010, 75). Silverstein’s speculation can
prove false, but one reason why states in Muslim countries were compara-
tively weak in history, although at the same time often authoritarian,
could be that interpretations of Qur’an and the Sunna by Muslim schol-
ars did indeed suggest a kind of divine order (Tibi 1994). There are plenty
of Surahs in the Qur’an related to educational goals and practices (Antes
1991, 70–71). If religious education in Qur’anic schools provided basic
literacy, the religious tradition was perhaps a good alternative and to
some degree a substitute for state-regulated compulsory education.
There are also huge intra-cultural differences in the sequences on the
durations of compulsory schooling, as presented in Chap. 3. Interestingly,
the cluster ‘Catholic, Spanish-speaking’ has comparatively long dura-
tions, but it is due to an overall trend to introduce compulsory prepri-
mary education. In contrast, WEIRD countries tend to hold back from
implementing such policies, even though these policies are propagated by
the UNESCO. Clustering according to the sequences of length of com-
pulsory education reveals that cluster 2 ‘stagnant short’ (N = 28) consists
of mainly Arabic and African countries, but there is no clear distinction
with respect to cultural spheres when the clustering is based on the
sequences. However, there is a correspondence between cluster member-
ship and gender rights: in the cluster ‘Long and extending’, where the
duration of compulsory education is comparatively long, but neverthe-
less still extending, the mean value of the gender rights scale are highest,
whereas it is lowest in the cluster ‘Late and stagnant’. Hence, there might
be a correspondence between culture and duration of compulsory educa-
tion, since gender rights or the tendency toward their absence, is an
important aspect of the so-called honor cultures, which include segmen-
tary lineages or patriarchal clans (Nisbett and Cohen 1996; Basáñez
2016; Henrich 2020, 283).
A further question was whether globalization has an impact on the
performance of secondary education systems. The influence of IOs on
domestic education policies has been clearly shown in previous studies
(Martens et al. 2014), but it is not yet clear whether the actual perfor-
mance is affected by globalization. In our study, we used global trade,
global migration, and global student mobility as indicators of globaliza-
tion. We measured each of these dimensions as networks and thereby
captured recent ideas about globalization in a rather direct manner. In
Chap. 4, we applied a model for network evolution that is able to sepa-
rate the effects of selection into a particular network tie from the influence
these ties have on actor attributes, in our case, on the performance of a
country’s secondary education system. Nonetheless, our empirical results
did not illustrate a significant selection of network ties according to simi-
larity in PISA scores or rankings, nor any effect from social influence.
This is an interesting result when considering the background of the
responsiveness of some countries to the results of the PISA study (Martens
et al. 2014). Rankings published by the OECD had considerable effects
and triggered intensive debates in some countries. Surely, the top-down
influence by ‘naming and shaming’ and by benchmarking the perfor-
mance of education systems is a different mechanism than horizontal
interdependencies via networks of trade, migration, and student mobil-
ity. Nevertheless, this is what we would expect according to the theories
of globalization: the stronger the interconnectedness of countries, the
stronger are the lateral influences in the world system. If this argument is
still correct, then our results indicate that it depends on the respective
dimension of the network in which countries are tied to each other. At
least we can conclude that the three network dimensions investigated in
our study do not influence educational performance, despite the policy
changes triggered by global actors, such as the OECD. Perhaps our results
also indicate that the implementation of policy reforms is at times rather
a performative act (Steiner-Khamsi 2012) and ‘myth and ceremony’
(Meyer and Rowan 1977).
Chapter 5 focused on the four major IOs, the World Bank, OECD,
UNESCO, ILO, and their ideational framing of education. The World
Bank now acknowledges the limits of a liberal market model but its tra-
ditional economic paradigm is still present. The OECD follows a twofold
education leitmotif, namely, the individual benefit and a better quality of
life due to education, but also better employability and higher wages.
However, the states are supposed to also benefit from the overall increase
in education due to economic prosperity. The UNESCO does not neglect

the economic consequences of education, but addresses the improvement
of people’s living conditions, a better inclusion of marginalized groups,
reducing poverty, and improving social justice and social cohesion. The
leitmotifs of the ILO became more diverse over time as well. Originally,
the ILO managed labor markets and employability, but now also covers
equal opportunities and social cohesion, even though the improvement
for individual workers’ conditions is still considered highly important.
The most important result of this comparative analysis is the tendency
toward integrative ideas. Whereas these organizations formerly dealt with
different issues—World Bank and OECD with economic growth;
UNESCO and ILO with quality of employment, social issues, quality of
life, and social cohesion—these issues seem now to converge toward more
integrative concepts. In our view, if there is some commonsense about
the importance of particular issues, in this case, social justice and the
improvement of life, they become institutionalized expectations in the
social environment of the organizations so that it becomes almost impos-
sible to ignore these issues. Proponents of new institutionalism may not
be surprised by this result.
Chapter 6 investigates the references in OECD publications. References
to European countries seem to be more prevalent compared with refer-
ences to non-European countries. Certainly, this has to do with the fact
that most OECD countries are European. However, references occur
quite often within regional clusters, even though European countries,
mainly Finland and Germany, receive most references. So, the
“Westernization of education is just as much a Finlandization, a
Europeanization, or even a ‘localization’ of education policy” (Chap. 6 in
this volume). It has been shown in previous research that Finland, as the
best performer in the PISA 2000, did set the mark for many countries,
whose representatives tried to learn about Finland’s education system
(Martens et al. 2014). Once a particular Finnish strategy has been identi-
fied as effective for success and entered public discourse, for instance, the
inclusion of anybody (Herrmann 2020), it is hardly possible not to con-
sider its adoption.
Chapters 7 and 8 analyze the educational leitmotifs of the SEAMEO
and the ICESCO as regional or cultural specific IOs. The Islamic IO on
education, ICESCO, and its partner organizations ALESCO and

ABEGS, are aware of the fact that high-quality education is of crucial
importance in international relations and for global economic and politi-
cal competition. Nevertheless, the ICESCO puts particular emphasis on
the preservation of the cultural and spiritual roots of its member coun-
tries, almost all of which are dominantly Muslim, and these issues rank
much higher than in other regional organizations. Islamic educational
IOs perform the balancing act of acknowledging their embeddedness
into global markets, on the one hand, and considering “Westernized”
education an impediment to the spread and proliferation of Islamic cul-
tural roots, on the other hand. The influence of the Islamic tradition and
philosophy is obvious in many documents. These IOs have their own
distinct ideas on education and follow their own educational leitmotifs,
without neglecting, however, the requirements of inclusion into global
markets and the world system. Accordingly, these results are in line with
the idea of ‘cultural spheres’ that moderate the diffusion of Western insti-
tutions, rationality and culture, even though there is no serious alterna-
tive to the adoption of institutionalized education in general and in the
long run. In a similar way, the SEAMEO emphasizes traditional norms
and cultural values of the particular regional context of their member
states and is at the same time interested in economic and developmental
benefits of global markets and the integration into the world system. The
two studies in Chaps. 7 and 8 reveal the tension between the worldwide
institutionalization of Western culture and rationality, which dominates
global markets and many important and powerful IOs, on the one hand,
and the countries’ own particular local or religious cultural orientations,
on the other hand. To some degree, our results even indicate resistance of
some cultures in the world against the expansion of the WEIRD cul-
tural model.
Our mixed-methods approach to the analysis of ideational framings
and leitmotifs of education enabled us to enhance the political view and
to contrast the results of the qualitative studies with results from stan-
dardized text analysis. Analyzing more than 1,600 documents published
by six IOs, namely, the ILO, World Bank, OECD, UNESCO, ICESCO,
and SEAMEO, Chap. 9 shows that these various IOs focus on different
topics in the field of education. IOs restricted in membership tend to
focus on their particular topics, which is Islam for the ICESCO and
issues concerning the Southeast Asian world region for SEAMEO. In
contrast, the OECD focuses more on universal issues related to educa-
tion, higher education, and the economy. Moreover, also the heterogene-
ity of topics differs enormously between these IOs. Why the most
prevalent three topics of the respective organization cover between a
fourth and a half of their overall topics, the SEAMEO devotes a major
part of its communication (78.6%) just to one topic, namely, “develop-
ment, SE Asia”. The same holds for the ICESCO, but to a lesser degree:
the ICESCO concentrates 54.7% of its overall communication covered
by our 70 topics on “Islam, culture and the state”. These results fit quite
well to the qualitative document analyses in Chaps. 7 and 8. We also
found that the UNESCO communicates around 7% of its overall com-
munication (covered by our 70 topics) to the issue “Islam, culture and
the state”. At first sight, this seems to be surprising since the UNESCO is
a universalistic IO, dedicated to education and has no restrictions in
membership. Maybe, this result reflects an attempt of the UNESCO to
cover particular interests of its member states and in so doing, the
UNESCO has to acknowledge global cultural diversity. Indeed, culture is
one of the major fields in which this IO is highly active.
Overall, our results are in line with our theoretical assumptions. First,
institutionalized education is considered highly important by IOs who
focus their activities on cultural or regional contexts. Education is essen-
tial for countries to compete on global markets and to participate in
global trade. The more the postindustrial modes of production and con-
sumption are globalized, the more important education becomes on a
global scale. Surely, globalization entails competition between states in
the field of education (Wallerstein 2004). If competition was the major
stimulus of why countries institutionalize education, however, it would
be difficult to explain why countries sometimes adopt these institutions
just at the ‘front stage’ (Goffman 1959), as a ‘myth and ceremony’ (Meyer
and Rowan 1977), or a ‘performative act’ (Steiner-Khamsi 2012).
Moreover, why would the regional or cultural specific IOs put such a
strong emphasis on the preservation of their regional or religious tradi-
tions? Instead, neo-institutionalism argues that once a practice is institu-
tionalized as taken-for-granted, it becomes increasingly difficult for
countries to refuse to adopt it, even though they adopt it at the ‘front
stage’ in order to gain legitimacy. In this regard, neo-institutionalism is
certainly correct at the global scale, where there is a considerable pull
toward adopting educational institutions.
But, if the global spread of educational institutions is also fostered by
universalistic and dedicated IOs, why then do regional and culturally
specific IOs exist at all? IOs, such as the SEAMEO and the ICESCO,
make particularistic claims and develop particularistic programs. In their
view, their missions seem to not be covered by universalistic IOs, e.g. by
the World Bank or the UNESCO. Their particularism indicates the exis-
tence of forces working against Western-dominated isomorphism in the
field of education. Since education is strongly linked to the intergenera-
tional reproduction of culture, it is not surprising that forces working
against global diffusion and isomorphism reside in what we have called
‘cultural spheres’. This conclusion fits well to recent studies highlighting
the increasing importance of identity—ethnic, religious, cultural or
political—during the last decades (Tibi 2012; Fukuyama 2018).
Empirical findings pointing to the ‘performative act’ of adoption (Steiner-
Khamsi 2012) are of particular interest because they integrate both per-
spectives: on the one hand, countries must somehow become active and
address institutional innovation propagated by influential IOs. Otherwise,
they do not acquire legitimacy, neither at the level of the global state sys-
tem organized within the IOs nor in their domestic population and elec-
torate. On the other hand, they do not fully acquire these institutions
and keep operating in their traditional way on the ‘back stage’. This argu-
ment highlights that the two theoretical perspectives outlined in the
introduction of this volume—isomorphism and cultural spheres—do
not contradict but rather complement each other.
We are well aware that a systematic inclusion of the concept of culture
in international comparative education studies is far from being trivial
(Anderson-Levitt 2012). It is indeed like “nailing the pudding to the
wall”, as the German political scientist Max Kaase argued with reference
to the concept of political culture (Kaase 1983). However, disciplines
such as cultural psychology, anthropology (Henrich et al. 2010), and cul-
tural comparative sociology (Inglehart 2018; Norris and Inglehart 2011)
have recently improved their theoretical concepts and empirical
measurements of culture (Mohr et al. 2019). Analytically, therefore, we

should not hesitate to systematically include culture in our studies—we
should simply accept the challenge and account more systematically for
one of the core concepts in sociology and anthropology.
In addition, we are also aware that integrating culture in the social sci-
ence studies can cause quite a stir from a normative and political-activist
perspective. It is important to note that analyzing cultural differences
does not necessarily imply a negative valuation of other cultures. This is
an important lesson to be learned from cultural psychology (Shweder
2003). Certainly, the editors of this volume are born and socialized in
post-1968 Germany, so part of our identity is shaped by the WEIRD
culture. Both of us do highly appreciate civil liberties, personal freedom,
equality, egalitarian gender roles, democracy, social security, and a well-
functioning legal state—we are even in the comfortable situation of being
able to take all this for granted. If persons adhere to liberal-democratic
values, they would like to see these values realized for other people in the
world, if they desire these values as well. So do we.
But being shaped by a particular culture and adhering to particular
values should not come along with imposing this culture and values to
others. As Haidt argues, if actors observe moral transgressions they
respond with emotions generated by neuronal processes. Which kind of
transgression triggers such a response is to a considerable part ‘hard-
wired’. All mentally healthy people are empathic and generate negative
emotions when they see people suffering (Haidt 2012, 72–75). Another
part of our responses toward moral transgression, however, results from
cultural factors and cognitive judgments (Shweder 2003, 36–37). Maybe,
it will never be possible “to draw a sharp line between, on the one hand,
emotions whose manifestation is organized by the generative templates in
the human brain and, on the other, emotions whose arousal by neuro-
logical and body systems is regulated by socially constructed rules”
(Turner 2000, 131), but this distinction is nevertheless important. For
many people from secular WEIRD cultures, the moral dimension ‘sanc-
tity-degradation’ is not important, whereas not respecting sanctity is
regarded as a serious transgression by many people, for example, in India
(Haidt 2012, 121–122, 173). Who are we to say that the emotional
response of moral disgust is inappropriate when observing such a
transgression? Not respecting or even denying Indians’ moral emotions

would be Eurocentric. Cultural moral psychology has shown that to some
degree the moral matrix in other cultures differs from ours. It is definitely
a virtue, not only for scientists, to recognize this difference and to put our
own moral matrix into perspective. In a global view, we are rather WEIRD
than the norm. This does not mean relativism if we adhere to liberal-
democratic and egalitarian values and argue in favor of them. Yet, given
the historical evolution of the WEIRD culture, it is not surprising that
other cultures differ from us. And these differences are an interesting
subject to scientific inquiry.
Outlook for Future Research

In this volume, we analyzed different “Global Pathways to Education”
and focused on cultural spheres, networks, and international organiza-
tions as explanatory variables. We started from a combination of theoreti-
cal insights that originate from sociological neo-institutionalism and the
comparative analysis of global cultures. We assume that our approach is
innovative and could contribute to the further development of
neo-institutionalism.
Moreover, the research methods applied in this volume are innovative.
Our methods range from qualitative document analysis, macro-
quantitative longitudinal analysis, social network analysis, sequence anal-
ysis, and standardized text analysis. Future research could further elaborate
on our theory-driven multi-methods perspective. Thereby, the set of IOs
analyzed in this volume could be enhanced as well. Currently, we have
identified 30 active IOs in the field of education. Of course, such a con-
siderable extension of the number of IOs is a challenge, particularly for
qualitative analyses. But also, the standardized methods of text analysis
require an accountable selection and collection of documents and their
preparation (adaption of formats, deletion of stop words, word stem-
ming) comes with a considerable workload. Nevertheless, the classifica-
tion of IOs in the dimensions of dedicated versus derivative and open
versus restricted seems to be fruitful. Thus, it is worth to put even more
effort into the analysis of regional or culturally specific IOs compared

with universalistic IOs, such as the World Bank, ILO, or the UNESCO.
Obviously, the cultural clusters resulting from our two-mode social
network analysis depend on the respective cultural characteristics we
included in the analysis. Also, extending or changing this set of character-
istics would change the results. Therefore, we should think about collect-
ing more data on global cultures. Moreover, future research should
systematically account for the consequences of education policy in differ-
ent cultural spheres and their populations. Individual level data, as pro-
vided, for example, by the World Value Survey, can be used to refine our
typology of cultures (Basáñez 2016; Inglehart 2018). Moreover, this data
also includes information on respondents’ education, labor market inte-
gration, but also on, for example, gender role orientations and the inclu-
sion of females into education. This information should be used in future
studies in order to assess the actual, micro-level consequences of educa-
tion policies in different cultural spheres.
Finally, in addition to the collection of more data on the introduction
of particular policies, the network diffusion analysis should be systemati-
cally extended to continuous variables. These variables could be, for
example, the share of female students in primary, secondary, and higher
education, or the share of migrants and minorities relative to the overall
population, by defining thresholds and the discrete event of adoption by
crossing the respective threshold (Meyer et al. 1992).
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Index1
A North America, 21, 287, 288

ABEGS, see Arab Bureau of South America, 51, 89
Education for the Gulf States Ancient Greece, 37
ADB, see Asian Development Bank Arab Bureau of Education for the
Adopter-types, 50 Gulf States (ABEGS), 192,
early adopters, 25, 50 193, 195, 196, 208–212,
early majority, 50, 51 231, 294
laggards, 50 Arab League, 207
late majority, 51 Arab League Cultural, Educational
Africa and Scientific Organization
Maghreb region, 204, 207 (ALECSO), 192, 193, 195,
North Africa, 89 196, 204–208, 210–212,
sub-Saharan Africa, 50, 89 221, 231
Albania, 180n8, 182 Arab World
ALECSO, see Arab League Cultural, Arab identity, 207
Educational and Scientific Arab people, 207
Organization Arab societies, 206
Americanization, 171 See also Pan-Arabism
Americas, the Argentina, 85, 180n6
1
Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

Social Policy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78885-8
304 Index
Aruba, 83 Buddhism, 89
ASEAN, see Association of Southeast Bureaucracies, 9, 13, 43, 44, 128,
Asian Nations 142, 286–288
Asia bureaucratic institutions, 286, 287
East Asia, 17
South Asia, 51
Southeast Asia, 27, 217, 218, C
221, 224, 225, 228–232, Cabo Verde, 86
234, 255 Cameroon, 87, 180n9
Western Asia, 181, 182, 184 Canada, 75, 88, 107n2, 176,
Asian Development Bank 178, 180n5
(ADB), 224 Western Offshoots, 176
Association of Southeast Asian Capitalism, 70, 100, 101, 287, 288
Nations (ASEAN), 222 Chad, 180n8, 203
Australia, 50, 107n2, 175, 176, Chile, 60, 84, 107n2, 174, 178
178, 180n5 China, 21, 50, 51, 54, 55, 167, 168,
Western Offshoots, 176 172, 180n7
Azerbaijan, 86, 180n7 Christianity
Catholicism, 44
Christendom, 270
B Citizenship, 26, 43, 46, 130, 132,
Bahrain, 208 142, 148, 149, 151, 152, 154,
Bank, the, 4, 77, 110, 112, 130, 206, 208, 274, 275
132–139, 143, 144, 146, 149, CLS, see Core Labour Standards
153–155, 201, 224, 230, 243, Clusters, see Cultural clusters;
253–255, 274, 280, 292, 293, Trajectory clusters
296, 299 Coherence, 246, 279
See also World Bank (WB) semantic coherence, 245–247
Belgium, 89, 107n2, 180n5 Cold War, the, 2, 45, 141, 145, 150
Belize, 84 Colombia, 106, 107n2, 180n6
Bhutan, 54, 66 Colonization
Bismarck, 8 colonial domination, 278
Bolivia, 180n6 colonial empires, 280
Movimiento Nacionalista colonial history, 56, 59, 105
Revolucionario, 68 colonial legacies, 39, 290
Bologna Process, 18, 86 colonial relations, 48
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 84 colonial system, 279
Brazil, 84, 107n2 colonial ties, 48
Index 305
post-colonialism, 49, 278 not predominantly Muslim

Competition, 3, 17, 26, 44, 99, 102, African and East Asian
103, 119, 129, 146, 154, 205, countries, 52
211, 242, 294, 295 predominantly Muslim countries,
Compulsory education 53, 55, 57, 59
compulsory education laws, 57, WEIRD/Western countries, 55
66, 72, 73, 80, 81, 86, 87, 91 Cultural Political Economy
compulsory education policy, 39, (CPE), 69, 70
66, 68–69, 71, 73, 74, Cultural roots
76, 83, 89 cultural heritage, 15, 209,
compulsory primary 229, 253
education, 65, 163 cultural uniqueness, 21, 230
See also Compulsory schooling; cultural values, 26, 218,
Trajectories 234, 294
Compulsory schooling, 8, 18, 19, spiritual roots, 194, 294
37–60, 68, 69, 76, 77, 79, 80, Cultural spheres
85–87, 291 cultural characteristics, 7, 13, 14,
See also Compulsory education; 24–25, 39, 51, 170, 299
Trajectories cultural network, 3, 7–8, 57, 171
Conflicts, 9, 10, 38, 40, 44, 45, 49, global cultural clusters, 24
147, 193, 194, 202, 211, See also Cultural clusters
212, 279 Culture
Cooperation, 10, 11, 26, 128–130, cultural development, 213, 272,
139, 146, 149, 203, 207, 208, 280, 287
210–211, 219, 221–234, 240 cultural differences, 10–13, 15,
Core Labour Standards (CLS), 150 20, 39, 47, 212, 286, 297
See also International Labour cultural diversity, 13, 45, 204,
Organization (ILO) 286, 287, 295
Costa Rica, 84, 180n6 cultural similarity, 26, 38, 46, 47,
CPE, see Cultural Political Economy 57, 71, 290
Croatia, 84, 107n2 global culture, 13, 40, 44, 47, 55,
Cultural clusters 146, 212, 280, 286, 289,
Catholic, Spanish-speaking 298, 299
countries, 52, 78 national culture, 43, 279
Eastern European and Asian regional culture, 225, 255
countries, 52 See also Cultural roots
306 Index
D 198, 199, 201–203, 209, 221,

Dakar Framework for Action, 65 228, 241, 243, 272, 280
See also Education for All economic productivity, 9, 274
Dedicated education IOs, 240 economic prosperity, 27
dedicated IO, 22, 27, 240, 243, See also Economic utilitarianism
252, 254, 255, 289, 295, 296 leitmotif; Growth; Wealth
Democratization, 16, 20, 39, 49, 56, of nations
79, 85, 290 Economic paradigm, 129, 137, 138,
Derivative education IOs, 243 145, 154, 292
derivative IO, 23, 27, 254 See also Economic utilitarianism
Diffusion leitmotif; Wealth of nations
diffusion of education systems, 4, Economic utilitarianism leitmotif, 22
13, 15–17, 39–47, 58, 99, See also Economic paradigm; Skill
101, 127, 280 formation; Wealth of nations
diffusion process, 8, 15, 17, Ecuador, 84
19–21, 24, 25, 38, 39, 46, 48, Education
50, 51, 55–59, 70, 99, 286, education policy, 2–6, 8, 9, 13,
289, 290 15–19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28,
global diffusion, 2, 4, 5, 7, 13, 17, 39, 47, 55, 58, 60, 66–74, 76,
37–60, 120, 280, 281, 83, 89–92, 99, 101, 127–130,
286, 296 133, 134, 136, 137, 140, 142,
policy diffusion, 38, 40, 98, 103, 143, 148, 164, 165, 169, 171,
164, 166, 169, 184 172, 183–185, 191–205,
See also Expansion 207–213, 217–235, 239–241,
Dominican Republic, 84 255, 291, 293, 299
Dropout, 46, 71 higher education, 104, 107, 112,
139, 152, 173, 205, 269, 270,
273–275, 279, 287, 295, 299
E mass education, 18, 270, 271,
Economic growth, 19, 42, 118, 133, 274–276, 279
136, 138, 140, 141, 143, 150, See also Diffusion; Education
152, 153, 194, 201, 202, 220, system; Expansion; Holistic
223, 225, 228, 269, 274, education; Performance;
275, 293 Privatization; Standardization
economic development, 8, 23, 25, Education for All (EFA), 65, 66, 88,
27, 39, 41, 49, 91, 105, 91, 136, 146, 150, 205, 225,
135–138, 147, 149, 152, 154, 275, 277
Index 307
Education for All Exclusivity, 245–247

Conference, 136 Expansion
See also Dakar Framework educational expansion, 267,
for Action 268, 272
Education for Sustainable expansion of education, 16, 73,
Development (ESD), 224 267–269, 276
See also United Nations patterns of expansion, 268
Educational, Scientific and See also Diffusion
Cultural Organization Exponential Random Graph Model
(UNESCO) (ERGM), 165, 175, 178–180
Education system
characteristics of education
systems, 18 F
national education system, 4, 16, Finland, 107n2, 172, 173, 175–177,
18, 24, 90, 137–139, 142, 154 180n5, 183, 184, 293
state education system, 1, 3, 5, 6, finlandization, 183, 293
45, 65, 66, 71 FMI, see Fowlkes-Mallows Index
See also Diffusion; Performance Foucault, M., 276
Egypt, 182 Friedenberg, Edgar, 276
England, 68, 176, 176n4, 274 Froebel, Friedrich, 20, 21
See also Great Britain; kindergarten, 20, 21
United Kingdom Fowlkes-Mallows Index (FMI),
Enlightenment, the, 37, 276 248, 249
post-Enlightenment, 269 Fukuyama, Francis, 10, 13,
ERGM, see Exponential Random 45, 47, 296
Graph Model Fuzzy sets
Europe fuzzy boundaries, 15, 25, 51, 59,
Central Europe, 5, 50, 101 170, 212
Eastern Europe, 52, 53, 57, 59, 89, fuzzy set clusters, 10, 40, 289
171, 176, 177, 180–182, 290 fuzzy set typology, 8, 14
European, 8, 21, 42, 46, 55, 58,
72, 89, 129, 168, 172, 177,
178, 181, 183, 184, 288, 293 G
Europeanization, 183, 293 GDP, see Gross Domestic Product
Northern Europe, 50 Gender
Southern Europe, 89 gender rights, 88, 291
Western Europe, 72, 129, 166, gender roles, 7, 13, 47, 55, 59,
176, 177, 183, 184, 231 170, 278, 297, 299
308 Index
German Gesellschaft für Growth, 136, 138, 140, 143,

Internationale 150, 152, 153, 194, 201,
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), 224 202, 220, 223, 225, 274,
Germanic countries, 277 275, 293
Germany, 107n2, 175–178, 180n5, See also Economic growth
183, 241, 293, 297 Guatemala, 75, 89, 180n6
Ghana, 68, 180n9 Gulf region, 194, 208–210
Global Action Programme
(GAP), 224
See also United Nations H
Educational, Scientific and Haiti, 53, 180n7
Cultural Organization Hegemony, 50, 101, 103, 105, 268,
(UNESCO) 269, 281
Global Forum on Education, 142 Held-out likelihood, 246
Globalization, 1, 3, 6–8, 46, Hinduism, 89
97–121, 141, 150, 152, 194, Holistic education, 154, 224
202, 205, 212, 228, 234, 235, Hong Kong, 107n2, 167, 168, 172
287, 289, 291, 292, 295 Horizontal interdependencies, 6, 15,
See also Globalization indicators/ 18, 60, 98, 99, 119–121, 292
networks See also Migration; Student
Globalization indicators/networks, mobility; Trade
100, 102–106, 109, 115–117, Human capital, 17, 22, 23, 132,
120, 121, 292 134–136, 138, 141, 142, 144,
See also Migration; Student 151, 153, 194, 201, 206, 220,
mobility; Trade 228, 242
Global North, 169 See also Economic utilitarianism
Global South, 23, 27, 145, leitmotif; Skill formation
148, 241 Humanistic liberal citizenship
Gravity theory, 105 leitmotif, 22
gravity model, 104, 111 See also Self-fulfillment; Social
Great Britain right and duty
British parliament, 167 Human right, 22, 42, 46, 68, 100,
former British colonies, 89 101, 137, 138, 143–147,
See also England; 149–151, 153, 154, 169,
United Kingdom 204–206, 275–278
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 19, human rights movement, 277
49, 56, 107, 111, 114, 117, See also Universal Declaration of
272, 273, 290 Human Rights
Index 309
Huntington, Samuel, 5, 10, 11, 13, International Bureau of

39, 45, 170, 212 Education, 75, 86
“Clash of Civilizations,” 212 International Labour Organization
(ILO), 15, 23, 26, 28, 44, 130,
132–134, 141, 143, 148–154,
I 243, 250, 253, 255,
ICESCO, see Islamic World 292–294, 299
Education, Science and Decent Work Agenda, 151
Culture Organization Decent Work Initiative,
Ideas, 2, 6, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20–22, 150, 151
27, 41, 59, 66, 118, 128–155, Declaration on Fundamental
167, 169, 184, 192, 193, 195, Principles and Rights at Work
199–203, 205–207, 209–212, and its Follow-Ups, 150
217–235, 240, 242, 244, 245, Declaration of Philadelphia, 149
255, 270, 276, 287, 292, 294 Jobs for Peace and
integrative ideas, 153–155, 293 Resilience, 152
See also Leitmotifs See also Core Labour Standards
Identity (CLS); International Labour
cultural identity, 194 Organization (ILO)
regional identity, 27, 207 International Large-Scale
See also Cultural roots Assessments (ILSAs), 103,
ILO, see International Labour 164, 167
Organization International organizations (IOs)
ILSAs, see International Large-Scale economic IOs, 133, 144, 153
Assessments education IOs, 2, 19, 22, 23, 26,
Income group 27, 129, 130, 133, 139, 153,
high-income, 77–79 154, 191–212, 220, 221, 224,
lower middle-income, 77 227, 230, 231, 234, 240, 294
low-income, 4, 77, 88 globally operating IOs, 130, 133
middle-income, 77 regional IOs, 17, 133
upper middle-income, 77, 79 supranational organizations, 7, 44
India, 68, 89, 180n5, 289, 297 universalistic IOs, 254, 255,
Indonesia, 81, 107n2, 180n8, 296, 299
197, 228 See also Muslim education IOs
Industrial revolution, 274 IOs, see International organizations
Institutionalization Iran, 180n8, 212
institutionalization of Western Iraq, 180n8, 205
culture and rationality, 294 Ireland, 107n2, 180n5, 288
310 Index
ISESCO, see Islamic Educational, K

Scientific and Cultural Kazakhstan, 176, 180n7
Organization, 192 Kenya, 85, 180n9
Islam Keynesianism, 140
Islamic civilization, 201, 211, 255 Kinship, 12, 288
Islamic countries, 194, 198, 201 Kuwait, 180n8, 208
Islamic culture, 194, 201
Islamic identity, 202
Islamic philosophy, 27, 193, L
209, 212 Latin America, 17, 181, 184
Islamic values, 200, 204 Lebanon, 86, 180n8
Islamic world, 26, 191–213, Legitimacy
255, 278 legitimization, 42, 44, 103
Koran schools (maktabs), 16 legitimizing instruments, 103
Qur’an, 291 Leitmotifs
Sharia law, 201 education leitmotifs, 22, 27, 132,
Sunna, 291 134, 135, 143, 144, 147, 155,
Islamic Educational, Scientific and 192–196, 201, 219–221, 292
Cultural Organization education policy leitmotifs, 22
(ISESCO), 192, 192n2, See also Economic utilitarianism
197–204, 210, 255 leitmotif; Humanistic liberal
Islamic World Education, Science citizenship leitmotif; Ideas
and Culture Organization Levels
(ICESCO), 22, 23, 27, 28, collective level, 132, 133, 195,
192–208, 192n2, 210–212, 199, 203, 220
221, 224, 240, 243, 251–255, individual level, 9, 22, 103, 220,
289, 293–296 225, 226, 299
Isomorphism, 1–28, 37–60, 69, 90, national level, 22, 25, 128, 164,
92, 106, 120, 166, 225, 267
170, 285–299 personal level, 226
global isomorphism, 9, 15, Liberalism
70, 78, 101 liberal-democratic values, 297
See also Standardization liberal dominance, 274
liberal state, 41, 42
liberal world order, 268
J Liechtenstein, 109
Japan, 21, 50, 53, 54, 107n2, 108, Lifelong learning, 150, 151,
167, 176, 180n5 225, 227
Jerusalem, 203 Louvain clustering algorithm, 51
Index 311
M Millennium Development Goals

Macedonia, 56 (MDGs), 66, 129
Maghreb region, 204, 207 Modernity
See also Africa contemporary society, 269
Malawi, 84, 180n9 modernization, 24, 39
Malaysia, 86, 180n8, 223, 252 modern rational institutions, 286
madrasah schools, 72 modern society, 43, 132, 268,
Mali, 87 273, 275, 277, 278
Marshall, T. H., 3 Moral matrix, 288, 298
Marxist theory, 40 “liberal moral matrix,” 288
Marxists, 40 moral emotions, 288, 298
MDGs, see Millennium moral orientations, 288
Development Goals Muslim
Membership criteria Muslim citizens, 192, 197
open membership, 240, 243 Muslim community (“Ummah”),
restrictive membership, 240, 243 72, 197–204
Mexico, 81, 107n2, 180n6 Muslim countries, 53, 55, 57, 59,
Meyer, John W., 2, 4, 5, 7–9, 78, 194, 255, 290, 291
12, 13, 25, 28, 41–44, 50, Muslim identity, 202
69, 71, 98, 101–103, 119, Muslim world, 27, 55, 192, 194,
120, 128, 163, 164, 167, 200, 201
169, 184, 269, 270, 272, See also Muslim education IOs
274, 286, 287, 292, Muslim education IOs
295, 299 Islamic education IOs, 192, 211,
Middle East, 197, 204, 207 221, 294
Migration, 99 Islamic IOs, 194, 293
global migration, 98, 99, 105, Muslim international
106, 117, 292 organizations, 193, 212
international migration, 101, 104 See also Arab Bureau of Education
migration flows, 100, 102, for the Gulf States (ABEGS);
104, 110 Arab League Cultural,
migration network, 106, 110, Educational and Scientific
111, 117, 118 Organization (ALECSO);
migration patterns, 25, 26, 100, Islamic World Education,
102, 105, 118, 121 Science and Culture
migration stock data, 107, 110 Organization (ICESCO);
See also Globalization indicators/ Organization of Islamic
networks Cooperation (OIC)
312 Index
N O
Narratives, 12, 13, 15, 73 Occident, the
Neo-institutionalism, 5, 7, 12, 13, occidental culture, 43, 287
20, 43, 58, 119, 286, 287, occidental rationalism, 7, 40,
295, 296, 298 287, 288
Neoliberalism OECD, see Organisation for
neoliberal ideas, 145 Economic Co-operation and
neoliberal paradigm, 136 Development
neoliberal policies, 136 OIC, see Organization of Islamic
neoliberal views, 145 Cooperation
neoliberal zeitgeist, 150 Oman, 11, 66, 208
Netherlands, 107n2, 174, 180n5 Optimal Matching (OM)
Network analysis algorithm, 67, 80
network patterns, 101, 281 Organisation for Economic
network topologies, 5, 20 Co-operation and
social network analysis, 10, Development (OECD), 5, 16,
24, 39, 40, 112, 286, 18, 23, 26, 28, 99, 102, 108,
298, 299 114, 130, 132–134, 133n2,
two-mode network 138–144, 146, 148, 149, 153,
analysis, 14, 290 154, 163–185, 191, 194, 201,
See also Globalization indicators/ 224, 230, 240, 241, 243, 250,
networks 252–254, 289, 292–295
NGOs, see Non-governmental 2030 learning compass, 143
organizations Centre for Educational Research
Niche theory and Innovation (CERI), 140
niche competition Directorate for Education, 142
argument, 242 Education Committee, 140
niche differentiation, 242 Global Forum on Education, 142
niches, 10, 142, 241, 242, Organization of Islamic Cooperation
252, 255 (OIC), 192, 194, 197, 204,
Non-governmental organizations 210, 211
(NGOs), 5, 203 Ottoman Empire, 68
Nordic countries, 173
Norms
global norms, 38, 71 P
social norms, 11, 150 Pakistan, 60, 106
North Korea, 89 Palestine, 146n6, 205
Norway, 107n2, 176, 180n5 Panama, 81
Index 313
Pan-Arabism, 207 Q
Paraguay, 85 Qatar, 87, 208
Partitioning around medoids (PAM)
algorithm, 81
Performance R
educational performance, 97–121, Rationalization
241, 292 rational culture, 287
performance of education Western rationalization, 7, 43
systems, 4, 292 References
PISA performance, 115–116 policy reference, 167
secondary education reference category, 181, 182
performance, 114 reference patterns, 163–185
Peru, 86 ‘reference-region,’ 181
Philippines, 50, 83 regional references, 165, 172,
PISA, see Programme for 176–178, 183
International Student Reference societies, 168, 169, 172,
Assessment 173, 183, 185
Privatization, 70, 71, 136 reference models, 165
Programme for International Student See also References
Assessment (PISA) Reformation, the, 42
PISA rankings, 100, 102, 104, Religion, 6, 13, 14, 16, 39, 43, 47,
105, 114, 118, 120 55, 59, 88, 89, 111, 114, 170,
PISA results, 102, 104, 118, 193, 200, 201, 203, 206, 241,
168, 173 243, 255, 271, 274, 279, 289
PISA scores, 25, 26, 100–103, Republic of Guyana, 197
107, 108, 114, 117–119, 168, Republic of Indonesia, 197
172, 292 Republic of Togo, 197
See also Performance Russia, 11, 50
Protestantism Rwanda, 83, 84
Protestant Reformation, 38, 44
Prussia, 68, 274
Purpose of education, 22, 129–132, S
134, 136–138, 143, 144, SAOMs, see Stochastic actor-
147–149, 151–153, 196, 206, based models
225, 280 Saudi Arabia, 208, 212
See also Ideas; Leitmotifs Scotland, 176n4, 180n5, 274, 288
314 Index
SDGs, see Sustainable Skill formation

Development Goals skills, 8, 138, 142, 144, 147, 148,
SEAMEO, see Southeast Asian 150–152, 154, 201, 204, 206,
Ministers of Education 220, 226, 228, 233, 250
Organization See also Economic utilitarianism
SEAMEO Council, 222, 223, leitmotif; Human capital
228, 231 Social cohesion, 142, 143, 146, 148,
See also Southeast Asian Ministers 152–154, 195, 209, 225,
of Education Organization 229, 293
(SEAMEO) Social policy, 3, 8–10, 15, 16, 38,
SEAMEO Regional Open 135, 141, 227, 255
Learning Centre Social right and duty
(SEAMOLEC), 222 equal opportunities, 152,
See also Southeast Asian Ministers 229, 293
of Education Organization social citizenship, 3, 142, 149
(SEAMEO) social participation, 22, 225, 226
SEAMEO Secretariat, See also Humanistic liberal
222, 234 citizenship leitmotif
See also Southeast Asian Ministers Soft governance, 129, 130, 139, 148
of Education Organization Solomon Islands, 66
(SEAMEO) South Africa, 89, 253
Secularization, 43, 270, South America, 51, 79, 89
274, 275 See also Americas, the
Self-fulfillment Southeast Asian Ministers of
personal development, 229 Education Organization
See also Humanistic liberal (SEAMEO), 22, 23, 27, 28,
citizenship leitmotif 217–235, 240, 243, 251, 252,
Sequence analysis (SQA), 25, 67, 254, 255, 289, 293–296
74, 80, 90 See also SEAMEO Council;
Serbia, 54, 56, 84, 180n7 SEAMEO Regional Open
“Service sector”, the, 103, 106, 110, Learning Centre
117, 273 (SEAMOLEC); SEAMEO
Shanghai Secretariat; Southeast Asian
shanghai ranking, 112, 114 Regional Center for Graduate
See also China Study and Research in
Singapore, 87, 145, 146n6, Agriculture (SEARCA);
176–178, 180n5, 223 Tropical Biology (BIOTROP)
Index 315
Southeast Asian Regional Center for Sustainable Development Goals

Graduate Study and (SDGs), 66, 91, 130,
Research in Agriculture 146–148, 225, 277
(SEARCA), 222 post-2015 global sustainable
South Korea, 54, 107n2, 167, 176, development agenda, 218, 225
180n8, 182 Sweden, 108n2, 176, 180n5
Soviet Union, 86, 89 Switzerland, 107n2, 109, 180n5, 241
former Union countries, 89 Syria, 81, 180n8
post-Soviet states, 168
See also USSR
SQA, see Sequence analysis T
Sri Lanka, 87 Tajikistan, 176
Standardization Thailand
global standardization, 137, Jomtien, 91
138, 281 National Education Plan of
standardization of education, 46, 1999, 85
171, 184 Timor-Leste, 222
standardized schooling, 38 Topic models, 26, 243–245
See also Isomorphism See also Structural Topic Modeling
STM, see Structural Topic Modeling (STM); Topics
Stochastic actor-based models Topics, 3, 26–28, 127, 129, 134,
(SAOMs), 112, 113 139, 140, 147, 148, 150, 153,
Structural Topic Modeling (STM), 173, 203, 239–255, 294, 295
240, 243–247, 249 Trade, 99
Student mobility, 99 global trade, 98, 103, 106,
global student mobility, 103, 104, 115–116, 292, 295
106, 292 service sector trade, 117, 118, 120
student exchange, 25, 26, service sector trade flows, 100,
100–102, 104, 105, 107, 110, 104, 107, 109
114, 117, 118, 120 service trade, 104, 110, 114, 118
student exchange network, 105, service trade networks, 109
110, 111, 116, 117 trade network, 109–111, 117
student exchange patterns, 104, See also Globalization indicators/
105, 107 networks
See also Globalization indicators/ Trajectories, 25, 65–92, 165, 289
networks “pathways,” 25
Sudan, 84 See also Trajectory clusters
316 Index
Trajectory clusters United Kingdom (UK), 89, 107n2,

Extending middle of the pack, 145, 146n6, 274
84, 87–89 See also England
From zero to long, 84–85, 87, 88 United Nations (UN), 21, 23, 65, 134,
Late and stagnant, 87, 88 143, 145, 193, 218, 224, 225
Long and extending, 86–89 sustainable development agenda,
Resilient latecomers, 83, 88, 89 27, 218, 225
Stagnant short, 83–84, 88, 89 UN General Assembly, 65, 145
Tropical Biology (BIOTROP), 222 United Nations Conference on
See also Southeast Asian Ministers Trade and Development, 109
of Education Organization See also Universal Declaration of
(SEAMEO) Human Rights
Tunisia, 135, 180n8 United Nations Children’s Fund
Turkey, 11, 85, 106, 108n2, (UNICEF), 133, 136, 144,
180n8, 182 146, 209, 224
United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
U Organization (UNESCO), 20,
Uganda, 53, 106, 180n9 22, 23, 26, 28, 65, 74, 75, 78,
UIS, see UNESCO Institute for 130, 132–134, 136, 143–150,
Statistics 146n6, 153, 154, 194, 209,
UK, see United Kingdom 218, 221, 224, 225, 230, 231,
UN, see United Nations 241, 243, 251–255,
UNESCO, see United Nations 291–296, 299
Educational, Scientific and World Conference on Education
Cultural Organization for All, 146
UNESCO Institute for Statistics See also Education for Sustainable
(UIS), 74, 109 Development (ESD); Global
See also United Nations Action Programme (GAP);
Educational, Scientific and UNESCO Institute for
Cultural Organization Statistics (UIS)
(UNESCO) United Nations High Commissioner
UNHCR, see United Nations High for Refugees (UNHCR),
Commissioner for Refugees 133, 209
UNICEF, see United Nations United States of America (USA), 20,
Children’s Fund 68, 88, 108n2, 145, 146n6,
United Arab Emirates, 208 176, 180n5, 274
Index 317
See also Americanization; WEIRD, see Western, educated,

Americas, the; United States of industrialized, resourceful,
America; Western Offshoots democratic
Universal Declaration of Human Western Church, the, 12, 43
Rights, 145 Western, educated, industrialized,
See also United Nations (UN) resourceful, democratic
University, 107, 112, 114, 116, 224, (WEIRD), 11, 12, 14, 43, 44,
250, 270, 271, 277, 279 53, 55, 57–59, 78, 79, 171,
USA, see United States of America 180, 180n5, 182, 184,
USSR, 140, 168 288–291, 294, 297, 298
See also Soviet Union WEIRD cultures, 12, 14, 43, 58,
288, 289, 297, 298
WEIRD people, 11
V Westerners, 11, 12, 43
Vertical interdependencies, 2, 3, 6, See also Western World
15–19, 24, 79, 98, 99, 120 Western Offshoots, 176, 181, 182, 184
See also Performance; PISA See also Australia; Canada; USA
Vietnam, 53, 54, 180n7 Western world
Vulnerable communities “West, the,” 91
vulnerable groups and local western, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 43,
communities, 232 44, 50, 55, 145, 165, 167,
168, 171, 177, 183, 184, 194,
202, 205, 231, 232, 235, 269,
W 272, 276, 280, 286–288, 290
Wallerstein, Immanuel, 42, 70, 71, western countries, 45, 55, 59, 72,
98, 100–103, 120, 295 79, 145, 165, 194, 290
See also World Systems Theory western culture, 43, 171,
Washington Consensus, 136 194, 294
Post-Washington Consensus, 136 western education system, 168,
Wealth of nations, 230 171, 200
See also Economic growth; westernization, 171, 183, 212,
Economic paradigm; 290, 293
Economic utilitarianism western society, 167
leitmotif western values, 45, 141
Weber, Max, 7–9, 11, 13, 16, See also Western, educated,
40–43, 46, 49, 58, industrialized, resourceful,
276, 286–288 democratic (WEIRD)
318 Index
World Bank (WB) See also Wallerstein, Immanuel

James D. Wolfensohn (former World Values Survey
president), 136 (WVS), 11
“Knowledge Bank,” 134–138 World Wars
Robert McNamara (former post-war period, 274
president), 135 Second World War, 274
“Solution Bank,” 137 World War II, 2, 44,
World Bank’s Education Strategy 70, 269
2020 (WBES 2020), 137 WW2, 140
World Development Report, 154 WWII, 2
See also Bank, the
World Culture theory, 70
world culture, 8, 69, 73, 76, 221 Y
World Education Forum, 146 Yearbook of International
World Society Theory, 101, 107, 120 Organizations, 23, 221
world society, 13, 42, 107, 120, Yemen, 87, 208
128, 164, 166, 169–171, 184, Yugoslavia, 56, 180n7
185, 270
World Systems Theory, 100, 120
world system, 69, 70, 73, 101, Z
240, 254, 292, 294 Zambia, 83

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GLOBAL DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL POLICY

Delia González de Reufels

Marianne Sandvad Ulriksen

More information about this series at

ISSN 2661-8672 ISSN 2661-8680 (electronic)

The intervention of states in fields such as health, social security, and

“This is a highly important and timely edited collection on a topic of remarkable

1 The Global Development, Diffusion, and Transformation

2 The Introduction of Compulsory Schooling Around the

3 The Global Trajectories of Compulsory Education:

4 Does Globalization Affect the Performance of Secondary

5 International Organizations in Education: New Takes on

6 Finding the Poster Child: Reference Patterns in OECD

7 International Organizations and Education in the Islamic

8 Regional Ideas in International Education Organizations:

9 Talking About Education: How Topics Vary Between

10 Education as Cultural Frame267

11 Isomorphism, ‘Cultural Spheres’, and Education Systems:

Fabian Besche-Truthe is a doctoral researcher in the project “The

David Krogmann is a doctoral researcher in the project “The Global

nationalization of education policy, qualitative methods, and the role of

ABEGS Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States

IEA International Association for the Evaluation of Educational

WDI World Development Indicators

Fig. 1.1 Projection of the two-mode network on the country level 14

Fig. 8.1 SEAMEO structure. (Own account, data from https://www.

Table 1.1 Spectrum of education leitmotifs 22

© The Author(s) 2022 1

considerable momentum since World War II (WWII) and sped up even

macro-data is employed to identify the national and international factors

 ecapturing Research: Education Policy

demands (Windzio 2013) and are simultaneously influenced by national

globally, partly due to the influence of IOs and nongovernmental organi-

Thus, the existing literature indicates that further research is required,

 heoretical Framework: Transnational

network is a fuzzy set typology of world cultures. It is the pipe structure

education—are supposed to reduce individual levels of vulnerability and

Education strongly affects the intergenerational transmission of knowl-

human evolution, was a competitive advantage. However, many social

peculiar path. In line with Weber, anthropologists point to the impor-

Cultural Spheres as a Limitation of Isomorphism?

Sociological neo-institutionalism is in line with the idea that humans live

narrative in a meaningful way. Many of us regard the personal narrative

of two-mode network analysis to generate a fuzzy set typology of what we

Fig. 1.1 Projection of the two-mode network on the country level

Education relates closely to a country’s cultural heritage as well as its nar-

 orizontal and Vertical Interdependencies Interlinked

culturally or regionally specific goals, which means that they concentrate

given by IOs. The following questions are considered relevant: Do educa-

Research Design and Empirical Approach

able to more precisely discern the degree of vertical interdependence

 ompilation of a Global Data Set

 he Analysis of Diffusion Processes

In addition to the modifying effect of cultural spheres and world regions,

democratization. A concentration of network contacts in a given cultural

Japanese teachers imported it to Japan and from there it spread to China

L eitmotifs and Typology of International

researchers (Nagel et al. 2010) we distinguish between two ideal types of

Table 1.1 Spectrum of education leitmotifs

derivative education organizations as they incorporated education into

1 The Global Development, Diffusion, and Transformation

2 The Introduction of Compulsory Schooling Around the

3 The Global Trajectories of Compulsory Education:

4 Does Globalization Affect the Performance of Secondary

5 International Organizations in Education: New Takes on

6 Finding the Poster Child: Reference Patterns in OECD

7 International Organizations and Education in the Islamic

8 Regional Ideas in International Education Organizations:

9 Talking About Education: How Topics Vary Between

10 Education as Cultural Frame267

11 Isomorphism, ‘Cultural Spheres’, and Education Systems:

Fig. 1.1 Projection of the two-mode network on the country level 14

Table 1.1 Spectrum of education leitmotifs 22

ecapturing Research: Education Policy

heoretical Framework: Transnational

Cultural Spheres as a Limitation of Isomorphism?

orizontal and Vertical Interdependencies Interlinked

Research Design and Empirical Approach

ompilation of a Global Data Set

he Analysis of Diffusion Processes

L eitmotifs and Typology of International

Structure of the Book

Culture and the Diffusion

Culture and the Legitimacy of Order

Institutionalized Education and the Transmission

Institutionalized Education and Society

Data and Methods

Describing Cultural Spheres

stimating the Influence of Culture

The State of Compulsory Education Policy

xplanatory Attempts for Compulsory

Sequences of the Duration

Clustering the Trajectories

eight-cluster solution. In a four-cluster solution, almost two-thirds of

Resilient Latecomers (Cluster 1)

Stagnant Short (Cluster 2)