Policy learning and europeanisation in education : the governance of a field and the transfer of knowledge

This chapter reviews the recent education policy initiatives in the EU through two lenses: (1) policy learning through the open-method of coordination, as a set of mechanisms of education governance, and, (2) what these mechanisms mean for the relationships between national and transnational levels of policy making. It is argued that policy learning acts as a particular mode of control of the direction, nature and content of the desired reforms, while at the same time there are appeals to its political neutrality and operational effectiveness. In the process of implementing and monitoring policy learning, national institutions become important sites for the understanding of reforms in practice. Drawing on a critical approach to policy instrumentation and new sociological institutionalism the chapter examines key debates in the literature of Europeanisation and policy learning and how these manifest themselves in the field of education policy