The symposium aims to extend upon research of policy networks, mobilities and governance, contributing theoretically but also methodologically, for researching policy networks in education. The papers engage with the national and global perspective, considering how policy is mobilised via polycentric and heterarchical networks cutting across both state and market. The symposium draws on papers that were invited to be part of a Special Issue, ‘Policy Networks’ by Professor Stephen Ball.

In their presentation, Adhikary and Lingard will draw upon research conducted in Bangladesh, emphasising the performative role that “imagination” played in the emergence and workings of multiple policy networks that continue to pursue social entrepreneurial reforms within primary education and the broader NGO landscape of the country.

As influenced by actor-network theory (Law, 1992), Rowe’s paper draws upon a metaphor of a dingo-proof fence for theorising policy networks, examining the establishment of a national evidence broker in education, referred to as the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO). The establishment of this national evidence broker in 2021, which sets out to determine the national agenda in educational research, has set an important precedent for mobilising collaboration with venture philanthropy. As modelled on the UK’s Education Endowment Foundation and linked with global corporate foundations, this paper explores how policy networks pursue homogeneity in education research.

Lewis examines the rise of Apple Teacher – the free online digital learning platform of the US technology giant, Apple, Inc. (hereafter, ‘Apple’), considering how Apple Teacher forges new market- and platform-based relations between otherwise unconnected schooling spaces and actors, and in ways that spill over the prefigured territorial boundaries of the nation-state.

McKenzie and Stahelin examine the hows and whys of the inter-network policy governance of two UN intergovernmental organizations with a focus on climate change education. The paper draws on interviews with 32 policy actors from a study of the network governance of UNESCO and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) policy programs on climate change education.

In sum, the papers carry a central aim of theorising policy networks in education reform, with an interest in policy mobilities and systems of network governance. The papers draw on a range of theoretical lens and methodological tools to explore policy networks as positioned within the global-local.

Ball, S. J., Junemann, C., & Santori, D. (2017). Edu.net: globalisation and education policy mobility. Abingdon,Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge. Knox, H., Savage, M., & Harvey, P. (2006). Social networks and the study of relations: networks as method, metaphor and form. Economy and Society, 35(1 (February 2006)), 113-140. Law, J. (1992). Notes on the theory of the actor-network: Ordering, strategy, and heterogeneity. Systems Practice, 5(4), 379-393. doi:10.1007/BF01059830