Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cross-national exchange, the OECD, and Australian education policy

  • Feature Articles
  • Published:
Knowledge and Policy

Abstract

This article addresses a topic that has hitherto gained scant attention in the knowledge utilization literature, namely, the effects of cross-national exchange on national policy formation. It draws on Weiss’s seminal study of U.S. congressional decision making, which suggested that in addition to using knowledge from research for guidance, politicians also use knowledge from many sources for legitimation, warning, and enlightenment. Case studies presented in this article suggest that while Australian policymakers use information from the OECD in all these ways, the enlightenment and legitimation fuctions are especially important.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Antal, A. B., Dierkes, M. & Weiler, H. N. (1987). Cross-national policy research: Traditions, achievements and challenges. In M. Dierkes, H. N. Weiler & A. B. Antal (Eds.),Comparative policy research: Learning from experience (pp. 13–25). Aldershot, England: Gower Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Education Council (1990).National report on schooling in Australia. Carlton: The Curriculum Corporation

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Education Council (1991).National report on schooling in Australia. Carlton: The Curriculum Corporation

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Government Publishing Service (1973).Schools for Australia. Canberra: Author

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Government Publishing Service (1983).National economic summit conference, 11–14 April: Documents and proceedings. Submission by the Youth Affairs Council of Australia (vol. 3, pp. 745–761).

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Government Publishing Service (1989).Better and fairier: Achievements in employment and training. Department of Employment, Education and Training. Canberra: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian National Opinion Poll (1984).Youth attitudes: Report on a survey of Australian young people. Canberra: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Eva L. (1980). Values and Policy in Educational Evaluation. In Hendrik D. Gideonse et al. (Eds.),Values, Inquiry, and Education. Los Angeles: UCLA Graduate School of Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, D. (1980).A suitable piece of real estate. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, D. (1987).A base for debate. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beare, H. & Boyd, W. L. (Eds.) (1993).Restructuring schools: An international perspective on the movement to transform the control and performance of schools. London: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beare, H. (1991). The restructuring of schools and school systems: A comparative perspective. In G. Harman, H. Beare and G. Berkely (Eds.),Restructuring school management: Administrative reorganization of public school governance in Australia. Canberra: Australian College of Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biddle, B. J. & Anderson, D. S. (1991). Social research and educational change. In D. S. Anderson and B. J. Biddle (Eds.),Knowledge for policy: Improving education through research. New York: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, W. L. (1992). The power of paradigms: Reconceptualizing educational policy and management.Educational Administration Quarterly, 27 (3).

  • Brett, U. Uphill battle for the humanities.Australian Society, 7 (12): 32–33.

  • Brumby, J. (1989).An apple for the teacher? Choice and technology in learning. Report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, J. J. (1987). The constitution of economic policy.Science, 236: 1433–1436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cazden, C. B. (1992).Whole language plus: Essays on literacy in the United States and New Zealand. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, J., Angus, L., Burke, G. & Wilkinson, V. (Eds.) (1991).Improving the quality of Australian schools. Hawthorn, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, W. F. (1980).The Australian Council for Educational Research, 1930–1980. Hawthorn, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronbach, L. J. & Associates. (1980).Toward reform of program evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahloff, U. (1986). Towards a contextual rationale in distance higher education: The small-scale cases of Australia and Sweden. In G. van Enckevort, K. Harry, P. Morin & H. Schutze (Eds.),Distance higher education and the adult learner. Heerlen, The Netherlands: Open University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, J. S. & Costello, R. (1983). Education, progress and equality. In J. Reeves & K. Thompson (Eds.),Labour Essays. Blackburn, Victoria: Drummond.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, J. S. (1987).Higher education: A policy discussion paper (the Green Paper). Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, J. S. (1988).Higher education: A policy statement (the White Paper). Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dierkes, M., Weiler, H. & Antal, A. (1987).Comparative policy research: Learning from experience. Aldershot, UK: Gower Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durand-Drouhin, M. (1991). New directions in vocational and technical education and training. Paper presented at the OECD seminar on Linkages in Vocational and Technical Education and Training, 19–22 March 1991 at Phoenix, Arizona. (Restricted OECD document).

  • Eliason, L., Fagerlind, I., Merritt, R. & Weiler, H. (1987). Education, social science and public policy: A critique of comparative research. In M. Dierkes, H. Weiler, & A. Antal. (Eds.),Comparative policy research: Learning from experience (pp. 244–261). Aldershot, UK: Gower Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finegold, D., Richardson, W. & McFarland, L. (Eds.) (1993).Something borrowed, something blue: The Thatcher government’s appropriation of American education and training policy. Oxford series on comparative education. New York: Triangle Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gittins, R. (1988, April 6). A few tips from Paris as Dawkins takes the class.Sydney Morning Herald.

  • Harman, Grant & Meek, V. Lynn (Eds.) (1988). Australian Higher Education Reconstructed? Analysis of the Dawkins Green Paper, Department of Administrative and Higher Education Studies, University of New England, Armidale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huberman, M. (1983). Recipes for busy kitchens: A situational analysis of routine knowledge use in schools.Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, 4(4): 478–510.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huberman, M. (1989). Predicting conceptual effects in research utilization: Looking with both eyes.Knowledge in Society, 2(3): 6–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, B. (1980).Exit full employment. London: Angus & Robertson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, N. (1991). Foreword. In J. Chapman, L. Angus, G. Burke & V. Wilkinson (Eds),Improving the quality of Australian schools. Hawthorn, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingdon, J. W. (1984).Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. Boston: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirby, P. E. (Chairman) (1985).Report of the committee of inquiry into labor market programs. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindblom, C. E. (1980).The policy-making process. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindblom, C. & David C. (1979).Usable knowledge: Social science problem solving. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Office of the Minister for Education and Youth Affairs (1984, November). Speech for the Minister of Education, Senator Susan Ryan, on Youth Policy.

  • Office of Youth Affairs and the Social Welfare Policy Secretariat (1984).Income support for young people. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orfield, Gary. (1978). Research, Politics and the Antibussing Debate,Law and Contemporary Problems, 42(4), Autumn.

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1980).Youth unemployment: The causes and consequences. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1985).New policies for the young. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1986).Youth and work in Australia. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1987).Universities under scrutiny. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1989).Education and the economy in a changing society. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1992a).Education at a glance: OECD indicators. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1992b).The OECD international education indicators: A framework for analysis. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Education Division and Center for Educational Research and Development (1987).Draft programmes of work for 1988. Paris: Restricted document.

  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Center for Educational Research and Development (1988).INES News. Paris: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia (1987).Skills formation in Australia: 1987–88 budget related paper no. 9 (Parliamentary Paper No. 204/1987). Canberra: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payer, C. (1982). The World Bank: A critical analysis. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payer, C. (1991). Lent and lost: Foreign credit and Third World development. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pusey, M. (1981). The control of education in the 1980s.Politics, 17 (2): 223–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pusey, M. (1991).Economic rationalism in Canberra: A nation-building state changes its mind. New York: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Raizen, S. (1991). Learning and work: The research base. Paper presented at the OECD seminar on Linkages in Vocational and Technical Education and Training, 19–22 March, 1991 at Phoenix, Arizona. (Restricted OECD document).

  • Resnick, L., Jenkins, D. & Wirt, J. (Eds.) (Forthcoming).Linking school and work: Roles for standards and assessment.

  • Rule, J. B. (1979).Insight and social betterment: A preface to applied social science. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sako, M. (1991). The role of employers and unions in facilitating the transition to employment and further learning. Paper presented at the OECD seminar on Linkages in Vocational and Technical Education and Training, 19–22 March 1991 at Phoenix, Arizona. (Restricted OECD document).

  • Schattschneider, E. E. (1960).The semisovereign people: A realist’s view of democracy in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sexton, M. (1981).War for the asking: Australia’s Vietnam secrets. Ringwood: Penguin books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sloan, M. (1989). The changing face of postgraduate study.Compass 89: 30–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smart, D. (1989, March). The Dawkins’s “reconstruction” of higher education in Australia. Paper presented to the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

  • Stokes, G. & Edmonds, A. (1990). Dawkins and the Labor tradition: Instrumentalism and centrism in Federal ALP higher education policy 1942–1982.Politics, 25(1): 6–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stretton, H. (1988). What on earth does this government think it’s doing?Australian Society, 7(12): 66–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vickers, M. (1989).Universities and the national interest: The Dawkins plan for higher education in Australia. Canberra: Australian National University, Public Policy Program.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. H. (Ed.) (1977).Using social research in public policy making. Lexington, MA: Lexington-Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. H. (1979). The many meanings of research utilization.Public Administration Review, 39 (5): 426–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. H. (1986). The circuitry of enlightenment: Diffusion of social science research to policymakers.Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, 8(2): 274–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. H. (1989). Congressional committees as users of analysis.Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 8(3): 411–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. H. (1990). The uneasy partnership endures: Social science and government. In S. Brooks & A. G. Gagnon (Eds.),Social scientists, policy, and the state (pp. 97–111). New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. H. & Vickers, M. (1992). The impact of research on educational policy. In M. C. Alkin (Ed.),The Encyclopedia of Educational Research (6th ed., pp. 1093–1099). New York: MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. H., with Bucavalas, M. J. (1980).Social science research and decision-making. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilenski, P. S. (1982).Policies for youth: Some approaches. Paper prepared for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Paris: Restricted document.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technical Education Research Centers, 2067 Massachusetts Ave., 02140, Cambridge, MZ, USA

    Margaret Vickers (Director of Science)

Authors
  1. Margaret Vickers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

An earlier version of this article appeared in: J. Chapman and C. Evers (Eds.), (1994).Educational Administration: Australian Perspectives. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Helpful comments on earlier versions of this article were provided by Don Anderson, Judith Chapman, Colin Evers, Jane Marceau, Beryl Radin and especially by Carol Weiss.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vickers, M. Cross-national exchange, the OECD, and Australian education policy. Knowledge and Policy 7, 25–47 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692814

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692814

Keywords

Search

Navigation