Previous research on the phenomena of globalization and Europeanisation (Ball 1998; Novoa and Lawn 2002; Rizvi & Lingard, 2006; Maroy, 2012) has provided at least two perspectives regarding policy production, i.e., policy borrowing and lending that occurs in education reforms. The neo-institutionalist approach accentuates institutional mimetism, i.e., an isomorphic convergence of educational policies due to external- regional and international-l initiatives and organizations such as the UN, the European social policy and the OECD, among others. The path dependency perspective, on the other hand, stresses that beneath such convergence trends, borrowing and reforms are primarily framed by previous and existing socio-political setting of a given context rather than being a submissive replication of external policies. This implies that policy production models may make references to elsewhere- including to international, European policies- in forms of “legitimation, caution, scandalisation, or glorification” to catalyse and stymie their own attempts at reforms” (Rappleye, 2012:125) and within the socio-political interests and objectives of national contexts. Both approaches are valid and useful frameworks in decoding policy production, borrowing and lending yet they do not permit furthering the causes of accountability, democracy, participation, and critical reflections and analysis in reform processes.  

In a quest for rights-based, socially just and sustainable reforms and policy borrowing processes, this paper introduces the Circular Policy Production Model (CPPM) as an innovative framework. The CPPM is a conceptual framework that aims to a set forth a theory of change in policy borrowing processes rendering them accountable, democratic, and impactful based on increased engagement and participation of practitioners, institutions, students, and other concerned stakeholders. Realizing the usefulness of both convergence and path dependency approaches, the CPPM introduces a by-design circular mechanism to policy borrowing and reforms. As such, it shifts away from the usual norm-setting reforms as an end in themselves- or the “iron cage” of formal rationality as Max Weber (1922) called it. The CPPM is a tool for analyzing education reforms and can also be applied in practice to ensure a democratic, participatory, accountable circular process of reform policy formulation and application across micro, meso, and macro levels of education systems.

To this end, this presentation is divided into three main parts. The first part is a review of existing literature on education policy borrowing and lending with a particular focus on the European policies and their formulation and impacts on national education policies. The second part delineates accountability, effectiveness, and impact of borrowing processes across a few selected cases of Western and Eastern countries in order to prepare the basis of arguments for the CPPM framework. This section will particularly focus on power relations, politics, participation, stakeholders’ engagement, accountability and impact of education reforms in Europe. The last part is dedicated to introducing the CPPM framework, highlighting its mechanisms, relevance, and application. This part demonstrates the potential benefits of the CPPM approach in education policy reforms paving the way towards rights-based, socially just, and sustainable reforms.

This paper adopts a social constructivist approach. It is based on a desk review tracing policy reform discourses, a power and stakeholder engagement analysis based on available national and international reports and data; an analysis of State governance system and type of reform borrowing and impacts.

The expected outcome of this paper is increased democratic participation of practitioners and other stakeholders in the formulation of reforms as well as reverting reforms from norm-setting tools for political steering ends to opportunities for profound impact-based sociological rethinking of educational institutions (their socialising virtues and functions).

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