Processes of “borrowing” and “lending” knowledge, structures, techniques of instruction etc. have long played an important role in determining the shape of education in its different national contexts. In recent years, however, arguably the amount of borrowing has accelerated. Over the last decades the educational landscape has been transformed in many ways. From having largely been a national concern, education now finds itself in a new and somewhat more complex landscape. Global, as well as European educational fields have emerged around new numerical-based governance technologies, interlocking with the traditional structures of national educational systems. By using the concept of borrowing as a focal point, the historical interplay between national and transnational educational actors can be put into perspective. The underlying problematique that will be addressed at the symposium is how to understand these processes of transfer, interaction and hybridisation. The question will be elaborated from a comparative perspective by members of the European ERECKS-network, an established joint collaboration on comparative research on education policy and reforms with members from Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, Norway and Sweden. In addition, there will be a symposium focusing on contemporary transnational perspectives on the topic in network 17.

Within a European context, international policy actors such as the OECD and the European Commission have played a significant role in the transformation of the educational field, one important aim being the creation of a successful European knowledge economy. By using (quantitative) indicators, benchmarks and also an increased involvement in the development of national implementation strategies the national educational systems thus are supposed to become partly governable from an international level. National as well as transnational actors are involved in the process of shaping national educational systems. Knowledge, which has always been at the heart of education, becomes part of a governance technology with strong economic overtones. These profound processes of transformation of the educational system as a whole also have a bearing on the issue of the evolution of educational science(s). Just as the boundaries of the sovereign nation state undergo change, the disciplinary boundaries of the educational sciences have to be re-thought. The historical development of the educational field and the “disciplinarisation” of educational science(s) with its distinctive national patterns are influenced by the wider process of Europeanization. The frame for discourse formation in the educational sciences increasingly leaves the frame of the national state.

The intention is to contribute to both the empirical and the conceptual development and understanding of borrowing and transnational processes in European educational discourse formation.

As outlined above, the main aim of the symposium is to explore the changing interplay between national and transnational educational policy-making and the educational sciences from a comparative perspective, using the concept of borrowing as a focal point. The contributions are all comparative to some extent, combining methods from the different knowledge areas as well as empirical contexts. The methodology is thus a multi-method research approach, using methods as text analysis, discourse analysis and statistical analysis of empirical material.