Specifying globalization effects on national policy: a focus on the mechanisms

This paper attempts to clarify the concept of globalization and to specify how globalization affects national education systems. It argues that though globalization represents a qualitative change in the nature of national- supranational relations, this does not necessarily imply greater homogeneity of policy or practice in education. The paper's particular focus is the mechanisms through which the external effects on national education systems are carried and delivered. It argues that it is especially important to specify those effects, since they have an independent influence on the ‘messages’ they carry. The main part of the paper is devoted to an elaboration and systematic comparison of eight mechanisms of external effects and the organizations associated with them: borrowing, learning, teaching, harmonization, dissemination, standardization, installing interdependence and imposition.