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What’s England Got to Do with It? British Underestimation of International Initiatives in Education Policy

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Transformation of Education Policy

Part of the book series: Transformations of the State ((TRST))

Abstract

The traditionally eurosceptic environment in the British Isles accounts for a political culture that is far less enthusiastic for international projects than in other countries on the continent. Over the years, this has contributed to the image of the United Kingdom (UK) as an “awkward partner” (George 1990). Among British academics and policymakers there are great reservations against wide-ranging cooperation in education or international harmonization. The government itself ignored Europe’s attempts to create a common higher education area for a long time. And even though the UK was a signatory of the Sorbonne Declaration in 1999, it has always taken a rather critical and passive stance towards the Bologna Process. There was little interest regarding the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) since there had already been a number of tests and domestic comparisons in secondary education in the UK.

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Authors
  1. Philipp Knodel
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  2. Heiko Walkenhorst
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bremen, Germany

    Kerstin Martens (Associate Professor of International Relations) (Associate Professor of International Relations)

  2. Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany

    Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Assistant Professor of Sociology of Religion) (Assistant Professor of Sociology of Religion)

  3. Department of Social Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany

    Michael Windzio (Professor of Sociology) & Ansgar Weymann (Professor of Sociology) (Professor of Sociology) &  (Professor of Sociology)

Copyright information

© 2010 Philipp Knodel and Heiko Walkenhorst

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Knodel, P., Walkenhorst, H. (2010). What’s England Got to Do with It? British Underestimation of International Initiatives in Education Policy. In: Martens, K., Nagel, AK., Windzio, M., Weymann, A. (eds) Transformation of Education Policy. Transformations of the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230281295_6

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