Received: 21 July 2022 Accepted: 19 February 2023
DOI: 10.1002/berj.3862
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Exploring educational policy transfer:
A structure–agency perspective
Yijun Yang
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The
University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW,
Australia
Correspondence
Yijun Yang, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, The University of Sydney,
Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia.
Email: yyan6203@uni.sydney.edu.au;
hsdyyj@126.com
Abstract
This study presents some of the current methodological issues regarding the analysis and comprehension
of educational policy transfer, with particular emphasis on the issue of structure and agency. It suggests
some shortcomings of current educational policy
transfer research in dealing with the complex interaction between structure and agency. To fill those voids,
drawing from Archer's morphogenetic approach in
educational policy transfer, an alternative framework
of educational policy transfer is presented. A case
from the author's current research on China's interest in Japanese vocational education during the late
Qing Dynasty is given to explain the usage of this
new interpretive framework. It is hoped that this new
conceptual framework will aid in analysing educational policy transfer and open up a new methodological and theoretical space for future educational policy
transfer research.
KEYWORDS
agency, cross-national attraction, educational policy transfer,
structure, the morphogenetic approach
INTRODUCTION
The study of educational transfer—‘the movement of ideas, structures and practices in
education policy from one time and place to another’ (Perry & Tor, 2008, p. 500), either
voluntary (e.g., Scott et al.'s, 2016 ‘policy learning’) or coercive (e.g., Phillips & Ochs', 2004a
‘imposed educational transfer’)—is a ‘complex mechanism involving the interplay between
social structure and human agency’ (Perry & Tor, 2008, p. 512) and has preoccupied the field
of comparative education and educational policy studies for decades. Scholars from different
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© 2023 The Author. British Educational Research Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational
Research Association.
Br Educ Res J. 2023;49:693–710.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/berj
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Key insights
What is the main issue that the paper addresses?
This paper aims to investigate educational policy transfer from a structure–agency
perspective. This study suggests some weaknesses of current educational policy
transfer research in dealing with the complex interaction between structure and
agency.
What are the main insights that the paper provides?
This study proposes an alternative framework drawing from Archer's morphogenetic
approach. It is hoped that this framework will open up new methodological and theoretical space for future educational policy transfer research.
strands have consciously or unconsciously debated the analysis of the issue of structure and
agency in the educational policy transfer process.
Some research tends to methodologically privilege the categories, intentions, roles
and actions of agents. For instance, drawing on an examination of educational reforms
implemented under the Soviet and US military occupations of the two Koreas, Kim (2017)
suggests that the ‘multi-dimensionality’ of actors needs to be considered in analysing the
process of educational transfer, and he proposes a novel conceptualisation that incorporates multiple actors at several levels, including international, domestic and individual actors.
Gardinier (2015) develops the notion of ‘in-between’ actors based on a vertical study of
post-communist Albanian reforms. do Amaral (2018) emphasises the prominent role of
transnational actors in educational transfer in the context of globalisation, such as the World
Bank, UNESCO and the OECD.
Some research tends to focus more on the issue of structure than on the issue
of agency. For example, based on Schriewer's (1989, 2000) externalisation theory,
Steiner-Khamsi (2014) brings the local context to the fore in her studies and argues that
local contextual priorities help explain not only why policies are borrowed, but also how they
are locally re-contextualised and implemented. Similarly, Crossley (2019, 2022) stresses the
need for greater context sensitivity as a familiar but ongoing priority of both theoretical pertinence and practical relevance if researchers and practitioners are to deepen their understanding of the reform process. Except for those scholars mentioned above, other scholars
such as Portnoi (2016), Musyimi et al. (2018) and Ge (Rochelle) and Ho (2022) focus on
analysing the impact of ‘belt and road’ initiatives or globalisation on higher education or vocational education policy transfer.
To avoid falling into this intentionalist or structuralist position that is evident in some transfer scholarship, some researchers tend to emphasise the importance of both structure and
agency. One such is Rappleye (2006), who proposed the contextual map of cross-national
attraction based on Phillips and Ochs' (2004a, b) four stages of educational policy borrowing
framework, in order to highlight the role of both structure and agency in transfer.
Although educational transfer scholarship has acknowledged Rappleye's contribution to
addressing the interplay between structure and agency in educational transfer (Barmeier, 2012;
Myint Thu, 2021; Webb, 2014), there is still potential to enhance the framework proposed by
Rappleye. Rappleye (2006) argues that the contextual map still leaves some methodological
problems, particularly in the complex interaction between structure and agency, that need to
be addressed. In addition, Rappleye (2006, p. 238) clearly expressed how the contextual map
is ‘open to criticism and amendment’ and is ‘provisional and will naturally evolve and improve
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the more it is used to analyse attraction and transfer in various settings’. However, in the past
decade, to the best of my knowledge, only one study conducted by Rappleye and colleagues
has employed the contextual map of cross-national attraction to examine a Japanese institution's import of European language policy (Rappleye et al., 2011). Although Rappleye and
colleagues' study sheds some new light on education transfer, it does not evaluate and challenge the contextual map of cross-national attraction it used.
Thus, herein I enter the educational transfer structure–agency debate to further
develop and refine Rappleye's model. This paper attempts to propose an additional analytical model—the morphogenesis of educational policy transfer—that facilitates analysis of
transfer with particular emphasis on the issue of structure and agency. 1 The model builds
heavily on existing educational transfer frameworks and draws from Archer's morphogenetic approach to the issue of structure and agency in order to refine Rappleye's model. In
this way, this study: firstly, advances the theoretical framework of educational policy transfer proposed by first-generation scholars Phillips and Ochs and third-generation scholar
Rappleye (Steiner-Khamsi, 2012); secondly, advances and develops in greater depth the
crucial theme of the inter-relationships of structure and agency in educational transfer by
reorganising and incorporating much of the relevant literature; and thirdly, is capable of stimulating further debate in this area.
The paper will begin by setting out a brief review of Rappleye's contextual map of
cross-national attraction (Rappleye, 2006) before pointing out the gap in the literature that
this study attempts to fill. The paper then introduces the possibility of applying the morphogenetic approach to educational policy transfer. This is followed by a detailed presentation
and explanation of the newly conceptualised framework. The resulting framework is then
used to explore China's modern vocational education—how China borrowed the Japanese
vocational education model in the late Qing Dynasty. The paper concludes by highlighting
how it might contribute to the current educational transfer literature, opening up a new methodological and theoretical space for future educational policy transfer research.
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER
Based on Phillips and Ochs' (2004a, b) four stages of policy borrowing framework,
Rappleye (2007) proposed the contextual map of cross-national attraction, highlighting the
importance of both structure and agency in educational transfer.
In the contextual map, structure and agency are highly connected in the following ways:
(1) under the influence of certain structural impulses, reform actors used these impulses to
‘package’ their case for reform; (2) under the influence of certain structural obstacles, resistance actors used these impulses to resist reform; (3) reform actors and resistance actors
are connected, especially by confrontation in the reform debates; (4) structural impulses
and obstacles are connected to show shifts in the ‘wider world’; (5) if there is an imbalance between reform actors and resistance actors—in other words, when reform actors can
‘package’ their case with several numbers of impulses while resistance actors had little on
which to base their case against reform—attraction occurs. In this way, the attraction stage
of the educational policy transfer process becomes much more fluid and complex because it
involves the interaction between structure and human agency.
Rappleye (2006) argues that, although the contextual map mainly focuses on the
cross-national stage, it may also be used to supplement analysis of the other stages of
Phillips and Ochs' four stages framework. The contextual map could be plotted and re-plotted
at each of the four stages to show how context changed during the policy-borrowing cycle.
The contextual map provides a valuable tool for educational transfer analysis, focusing
particularly on the complex interaction between structure and agency. However, it is far from
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perfect. Rappleye highlights that more theorising about cross-national attraction and transfer
is needed to understand the following questions: (1) Is there any interconnection between
particular actors and the strategies they choose? (Rappleye, 2006, p. 233) (2) How does
context shift during the life of a borrowed policy? (Rappleye, 2006, p. 238) (3) How has
attraction and transfer changed throughout history? (Rappleye, 2006, p. 238)
In addition to the limitations mentioned above, this study argues four more limitations.
First, Rappleye leaves the terms of structure and human agency relatively unexamined. For
instance, from the perspective of a political party, a state government could be viewed as a
structure, but from the perspective of a supranational organisation, a state government could
also be seen as an agent. The clarity of definition is not only vital for researchers to make
more conscious use of them, but also significant to gain a fuller view of social reality.
Second, recall that Rappleye maintains Phillips and Ochs' contribution and has placed
internalisation at the final stage of the four stages of educational policy borrowing. However,
some studies point out that internalisation occurs not only at the indigenisation stage
(Ochs, 2006; Tan, 2016). For instance, in the case of examining China's educational borrowing from the West to launch its New Curriculum Reform, Tan (2016, p. 152) argues that
internalisation ‘takes place not only at the internalisation stage but at all stages of policy
borrowing’. This is also true in the case of my research exploring China's borrowing of
Japanese vocational education. For example, internalisation has already taken place in the
cross-national attraction stage, as potential actors have introduced and put into practice the
borrowed policy through several programmes investigating Japanese vocational education.
The third weakness of Rappleye's framework is the inadequacy of dealing with the
complex interplay between structure and agency. Rappleye does realise the importance of
framing a model dealing with the interplay between structure and agency. However, it seems
that the way Rappleye deals with the interactions between structure and agency is somewhat simplistic and not as ‘highly complex’ as Rappleye (2006, p. 234) claims. This can be
explained on at least two accounts. First, potential actors—whether supporting or resisting
reform—may change throughout the process of borrowing a policy, even at each stage.
Specifically, as several factors (e.g., actors' perceptions of reform, vested interests in reform
and ability to change the status quo) may change over time, formerly resistant actors may
change their attitudes and support reform. Similarly, formerly supportive actors may change
their attitudes and resist reform. In other words, resistance actors and supporters can all
regroup in the process of transfer. Second, while Rappleye is aware that agency could ‘package’ impulses or obstacles to support or resist reform, he fails to realise that agency could
also exert influences on contexts. Both structural impulses and obstacles can be changed
with potential actors' actions. And the change, or the newly structured environment, conditions agents' actions at the next stage.
Fourth, recall that Phillips and Ochs (as well as Rappleye) all treat the four stages—
cross-national attraction, decision-making, implementation and internalisation—as individual
stages. They fail to recognise that all of these separate stages are also separate processes
in themselves. Taking the implementation stage for example, the case of China's borrowing
of Japanese vocational education shows that the implementation stage is an institutionalised
process rooted in a recursive interaction between social structure and human agency. On the
one hand, the promulgation of different decrees at different times caused changes in social
rules, positions and connections that were institutionalised as part of the social structure of
the vocational education system and thus constrained or facilitated certain agency activities. On the other hand, agency acts can also serve to change those social structures. The
recursive interaction between structure and agency reminds us that implementation can be
an independent process and cycle, rather than just a separate stage of educational transfer.
Similarly, from this vantage point, stages—including attraction and decision-making—can
also be viewed as separate processes and cycles of educational transfer.
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Rappleye (2006, p. 238) clearly expressed that the contextual map is ‘open to criticism
and amendment’ and is ‘provisional and will naturally evolve and improve the more it is
used to analyse attraction and transfer in various settings’. This acknowledgement implies
that Rappleye is still dissatisfied with prior work on the interactions between human agency
and structure in educational policy transfer and is still seeking additional theories that can
adequately account for the complex interactions between transfer context and human agency.
Hence, while the contextual map of cross-national attraction has contributed significantly
to the analysis of the structural and agential interactions in educational transfer, additional
theory in this framework appears both possible and necessary.
AN ALTERNATIVE: THE MORPHOGENETIC APPROACH TO
EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER
This study has thus far suggested the possibility and necessity of developing the theory
on educational policy transfer, particularly on the issue of the interaction between transfer
context and human agency. Steiner-Khamsi (2012) argues that the study of educational
policy transfer, which lies at the intersection of two different large fields of study—comparative
education and policy studies—requires an interdisciplinary treatment and that researchers
in educational policy transfer can benefit significantly from both the fields of political science
and sociology.
The interaction between transfer contexts and actors in educational policy transfer can be
viewed as a particular example of the relationship between structure and agency, which ‘is
the core of sociology and social theory’ (O'Donnell, 2010, p. xxii). Sociologists have conceptualised the structure and agency issue in a variety of ways. Among them, Giddens' (1979)
structuration approach and Archer's (1995) morphogenetic approach are the most influential
approaches dealing with the structure and agency relationship in these centre grounds.
Neither of these approaches has yet been applied to educational transfer studies to the
best of my knowledge.2 But in political science, Evans and Davies (1999) have developed the
policy transfer network rooted in Giddens' structuration approach. Certainly, Evans and Davies'
policy transfer network provides a heuristic device for policy transfer analysis in political science
(Marsh & Sharman, 2009). However, only a few empirical studies have applied and tested it in
political science. To the best of my knowledge, the theory has not yet been used in comparative
education. The primary critique of their theory is that ‘it does not allow one to study the interaction between structure and agency because, methodologically, either structure or agency, and
usually the former, is held constant’ (Marsh & Sharman, 2009, p. 275).
Given the limitations of Giddens' structuration approach, fully embracing the weaknesses
of the contextual map of cross-national attraction mentioned above, Archer's morphogenetic
approach is preferable if researchers want to examine the dynamic and complex interaction
between human agency and structure over time.
The morphogenetic approach has its roots in the philosophical tradition of critical realism
pioneered by Bhaskar (2010), and distinguishes between three types of emergent properties: structural emergent properties (SEPs), cultural emergent properties (CEPs) and
people's emergent properties (PEPs). SEPs, relatively enduring and irreducible to people,
are referred to as ‘those internal and necessary relationships which entail material resources,
whether physical or human, and which generate causal powers proper to the relations itself’
(Archer, 1995, p. 177). CEPs are properties of cultural systems and comprise the world of
ideas, theories, values and beliefs that can be included in a specific discourse. SEPs and
CEPs can also be understood in terms of interdependencies, which might be internal/necessary or contingent/external. A necessary/internal relation refers to internally related, as the
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EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER
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relationship between two or more emergent properties when none can operate without the
other. An external/contingent relation refers to externally related, as the relationship between
two or more emergent properties where one is able to exist without the other. These, in
pre-existing conditions, will have a strong influence on actors' actions and behaviours by
determining the bargaining power of agency, but this is not predetermined.
PEPs can include humans as individuals, people with roles and positions, and groups and
collectivises who may be more or less powerful in decision-making situations (Archer, 1995).
There are two types of agents, including corporate agents and primary agents. Corporate agents
can be distinguished from primary agents as the former have a say and the capacity to influence social stability and change, while the latter lack ‘a say in structural or cultural modelling’
(Archer, 1995, p. 259). Under the influence of SEPs, CEPs and the capacities of component
members of PEPs, primary agents and corporate agents may regroup over time (Archer, 1995).
The interaction between structure and agency is captured in the morphogenetic framework, which is based on two central suppositions: ‘(1) that structure necessarily pre-dates
the action(s) leading to its reproduction or transformation; (2) that social elaboration necessarily post-dates those actions’ (Archer, 1995, p. 76).
Archer suggests that these two fundamental propositions minimise the issue of conflating
structure and agency by suggesting analytical dualism, in which structure and agency, while
ontologically inextricably linked, are separated for the sake of understanding their dynamics
(Archer, 2010b). Additionally, Archer also argues that the conditional and generative mechanisms working between structure and agency are crucial (Archer, 1995).
At its most basic, the morphogenetic cycle includes three temporally distinct analytical
stages: structural conditioning (pre-existing structures that condition but do not determine),
social interaction (interaction and action of people organised in multiple ways) and structural
elaboration (reproduction or transformation of pre-existing structures) (Archer, 1995).
Structural conditions and their situational logics influence agential action to transform or
preserve the status quo in the morphogenetic cycle over time. At structural conditioning (T1),
the first step is to identify the distribution of structural and CEPs, such as resources, roles,
institutions, social structures and ideas. Those in pre-existing conditions will strongly influence agential action by determining the bargaining power of agency, but this is not predetermined. Archer identifies four possible interaction relationships between those pre-existing
structural and CEPs, including necessary complementarity, necessary contradiction, contingent complementarity and contingent contradiction. These possible interactions, along with
the vested interests of the dominant actors and the projects they are involved in, may lead to
four possible situational logics of actors, including protection, compromise, opportunism and
elimination (Archer, 1995). This underlying background provides directional guidance for the
agency to adopt particular strategic actions at social interaction (T2).
During the social interaction stage (T2—T3), different actors dealing with the same situational logic may reflect on it in very different ways in light of their vested interests and
the projects they are involved in, and their actions may differ as a result. For instance, in
educational policy transfer, actors may decide not to continue borrowing from a particular
donor country's policy to develop education in their own country based on their personal
knowledge and understanding of a particular educational policy transfer. Actors, in essence,
may act consistently or inconsistently with structural conditioning, or they may even demonstrate a creative capacity to escape the structure's limits (Archer, 1995).
The ultimate desirable or undesirable effect of social interaction then leads to morphogenesis or morphostasis at social elaboration (T4). Simultaneously, T4 initiates a new
morphogenetic cycle, as it adds a new set of restrictions and assists conditional impacts on
interaction. Therefore, T4 is the new T1. The morphogenetic cycle, with its historical interpretation of existing structural and CEPs, thus tends to highlight complex interactions between
human agency and prior structures. The morphogenetic approach examines this process
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over time, dealing with endless cycles of structural/cultural conditioning, socio-cultural interaction and structural/cultural elaboration.
Archer proposes that scholars in other, completely different fields of study can consider the
morphogenetic approach as a starting point for constructing relevant theories of social change
and stability (Archer, 1995). Applying Archer's morphogenetic approach to educational policy
transfer research can, to some extent, help address the unresolved problems or limitations
of Rappleye's model mentioned earlier in the following ways. Employing the morphogenetic
approach, which Archer sees as a meta-theoretical guideline, to the area of educational policy
transfer enables researchers to define each stage of educational policy transfer as a set of internally and externally related interactions. These relationships have causal power to influence
actors, such as political parties and think tanks, towards taking one action rather than another
at a particular stage of educational policy transfer. At different stages of transfer, actors such
as political parties and think tanks are both vested interest groups and thus actors. Because
actors involved in the educational policy transfer process—whether at the attraction stage,
decision-making stage or implementation stage—hold certain positions within the structure,
they are inevitably subject to these dispositions. They do, however, take strategy actions according to their own perceptions of the structure's impact and their associated projects at different
stages. In turn, agency actions and interactions at different stages result in changes of social
structure of the different stages. In this way, the attraction, decision-making and implementation
stages can be seen not only as separate stages, but also as separate processes and cycles,
and internalisation takes place at all stages of attraction, decision-making and implementation
when agency actions and interactions at these stages result in the change of social structure.
By suggesting applying Archer's morphogenetic approach in educational policy transfer
research, this study is not using the morphogenetic approach to defend previous frameworks,
but to refine the frameworks based on their contribution. In doing so, it seeks to help researchers and practitioners have a more comprehensive view and sophisticated approach towards the
complex interaction between structure and agency in the educational policy transfer processes.
TOWARDS THE FRAMEWORK OF THE MORPHOGENESIS OF
EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER
So far, this study has attempted to argue for the necessity of theorising the educational transfer
process and the applicability of employing Archer's morphogenetic approach to educational
policy transfer research to refine Rappleye's framework. With this in mind, this section attempts
to develop an additional analytical tool for educational policy transfer research by applying the
morphogenetic approach. This framework mainly illustrates each stage of change in educational
policy transfer by emphasising three key characteristics of the meta-theoretical framework: first,
the relationship between structural factors of the structural conditioning stage, elaborating their
interdependence (necessary or external relationships) and logical connections (complementarity or contradiction); second, the situational logics and agential actions in the social interaction
stage; third, the outcome of social interaction at the structural elaboration stage. This will enable
researchers to understand educational policy transfer changes. To this end, a practical framework of educational policy transfer emerges (see Figure 1).
Given the visual complexity of the framework, it is best to deconstruct each stage of the framework separately; nevertheless, due to space limitations, this paper will focus primarily on the attraction stage of the educational policy transfer cycle. Because the decision and implementation stages
are analysed in the same way as the attraction stage, understanding how the attraction stage is
analysed leads to understanding how the decision and implementation stages are analysed.
The morphogenetic cycle of attraction (see Figure 2) is designed to be useful in the
practical analysis of the attraction stage of educational policy transfer. It is dualistic and
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sequential, unravelling the dialectical complex interplay between structure and agency by
addressing the endless cycles of contextual imperatives for interest in a particular policy,
socio-cultural interaction and how policy attraction elaborates new structural imperatives.
Contextual imperatives for interest in a particular policy (T1)
This refers to the structural conditions in which agents' interest in a particular place's particular policy subsequently takes place. Recall that, based on Phillips and Ochs' proposal
of impulse factors such as internal dissatisfaction, systemic collapse, economic change,
knowledge/skills innovation, negative external evaluation, political and other imperatives,
Rappleye added some structural obstacles that may constrain attraction, including local/
organisational structures, reform fatigue, physical plant, internal satisfaction, myths of history,
tradition and culture. Rappleye mentions that both impulses and obstacles can influence
the system to varying degrees, depending on how perceptible those impulses and obstacles are (Rappleye, 2006). Essentially, from the morphogenetic perspective, these structural
elements can be considered as SEPs or CEPs. To put it simply, all these structural factors,
no matter what properties they have, might facilitate or constrain agents' action. This study
retains this significant contribution but suggests three more insights to explain how these
structural/cultural factors condition social interaction at T2.
First, structural elements of varying levels should be considered because the educational
transfer as a process involves multiple levels and areas. As mentioned above, if the borrowed
policy is part of a larger system, then the three levels of analysis should be distinguished
from the perspective of a subsystem, namely the subsystem itself, the broader system to
which it belongs and the context of that larger system. Each of these different levels may
have a driving or hindering influence on agency actions at T2—T3.
Second, four relationships might emerge between the interactions of different emergent
structural or cultural properties: necessary/internal complementarity, necessary/internal
contradiction, contingent/external contradiction and contingent/external complementarity.
FIGURE 1
The morphogenesis of educational policy transfer.
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FIGURE 2
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The morphogenetic cycle of attraction.
These situational logics will influence agents to follow particular courses of action to decide
whether they are interested in a particular policy.
Third, different structural factors exert varying degrees of temporal resistance to agents'
actions. These structural conditions affect how long it will take to eliminate them through conditioning the context of agents' actions. Some factors, such as cultural traditions, may have a
longer influence on action, while others may be shorter. Perhaps their conditional influence
mostly consists of dividing the population (not necessarily all of it) into social groups that work to
maintain or alter a particular property because the property itself allocates them different objectives' vested interest at T2. This would be the case when it comes to properties like social status.
Fourth, the structural influences on action do not eliminate immediately, no matter how short
their impact would be. Put another way, it takes time for any structural property to change, and
that period is a constraint for at least some groups. This prevents the realisation of certain goals,
no matter how short. Therefore, structural influences can extend beyond T2, and it is crucial to
figure out whether this is because they resist collective pressures for change, representing the
interests of the powerful, or are in fact ‘psychologically supported’ by the general population.
Socio-cultural interaction (T2—T3)
Recall that the contextual map of cross-national attraction envisages a single pool of all
possible actors and note that these can be divided into reform actors and resistance actors,
who may use the foreign example to glorify, caution, legitimate or scandalise current practices (Rappleye, 2006). This new framework maintains this significant contribution but offers
new insights in three aspects.
First, the agency activity at attraction T2 takes place in an environment that is not
self-created. The situational logics between different structural and CEPs generated at
attraction T1 can facilitate or limit the actor's behaviour and direct agency to adopt certain
strategic actions to decide whether to transfer the policy based on their vested interest.
Different actors may have different ways of dealing with the same issue.
Second, between T2 and T3, human agency action could influence original structural
impulses and obstacles temporally and directly. Temporally, agency action can hasten,
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postpone or block the elimination of past structural impulses and obstacles. Directly, it can
change the country of interest.
Third, the categories and numbers of reform and resistance actors are not fixed but mobile
and change over time. At the beginning of the cycle, reform actors and resistance actors are
not equal because the initial distribution of structural factors delineates reform actors and
distinguishes them from resistance actors. In the process of interaction, reform actors
change the environment in which resistance actors operate, and resistance actors shift the
context in which reform actors live. Both groups' actions can either constrain or facilitate
the other group. Through interaction in pursuit of social change, the categories of reform
and resistance actors may gradually redefine or regroup, and their numbers may gradually
increase or decrease over time. Usually, human agency elaboration consists of the shrinking
of the group of resistance actors, who are absorbed or transformed into reform actors, thus
swelling this group. As a result, the social change results from aggregate effects produced by
resistance actors in conjunction with emergent properties generated by reform actors, and
therefore does not approximate to what anyone desires.
Policy attraction elaborates new structural imperatives (T4)
This is the final phase of the basic morphogenetic cycle of attraction, which is also, of course,
the first phase of the next morphogenetic cycle of attraction or the morphogenetic cycle of
decision-making. Recall that Rappleye (2006) maintains the internalisation stage of the four
stages of educational policy borrowing framework (Phillips & Ochs, 2003), and suggests that
the educational transfer process can exert influences at both structural and agency levels.
This study retains this contribution, but argues, first, that internalisation can take place at
all other stages such as the attraction, decision-making and implementation stages, and
second, that this effect is time-differentiated, with some actions having an impact in the shortterm category (between T2 and T4) and others taking longer to have an effect (in the next
morphogenetic cycle). In other words, T4 not only eliminates previous structural impulses
and obstacles and replaces them with others in the short term, but also introduces a new set
of structural influences in the long term. Therefore, to some extent, T4 is equivalent to the
internalisation stage of educational policy transfer, both as a product and a process of the
attraction stage. In other words, the attraction at T4 is not created from scratch, but rather, at
least to some degree, it is transformed as a result of earlier agents' actions at T2 and T3. The
possible outcome of social interaction at the attraction stage may involve structural change
(morphogenesis: attracted to a particular policy) or reproduction (morphostasis: unattracted
to a particular policy). Simultaneously, T4 in the attraction stage initiates a new morphogenetic cycle in two ways: either it becomes the T1 of the morphogenetic cycle of attraction, or
it becomes the T1 of the morphogenetic cycle of decision-making.
THE FRAMEWORK IN PRACTICE: CHINA'S BORROWING OF
JAPANESE VOCATIONAL EDUCATION MODEL
To elucidate how to apply the framework shown above, this section attempts to briefly analyse
the process of China's borrowing of the Japanese vocational education model from 1895 to
1912 by using the morphogenesis of educational policy transfer framework. While space
here does not allow for a comprehensive examination, examining the process of China's
borrowing of Japanese vocational education during the late Qing Dynasty is instructive.
For over 1000 years, the neglect of vocational education in traditional Chinese education
had been a feature of China's history. It was not until the end of the Second Opium War in
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1860 that Western technology, science and democratic ideas were introduced by the colonial powers. Some educators believed that traditional education was no longer adequate for
defending the country from colonisation, while benefiting from industrialisation and modernisation. Intellectuals and reformers like Kang Youwei and Yan Fu criticised traditional education and advocated for vocational education in the Western model. The defeat of China by
Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War called seriously for a fundamental restructuring of the
entire education system and also stimulated Chinese interest in Japanese education. Under
the influence of Japan, China initiated education reform twice in the late Qing Dynasty—in
1902 and 1904—and enacted a national education system in each of these reforms. The
vocational education system, as a subsystem of the national education system, was created
and developed with these three national educational reforms.
The 1902 school system
The morphogenetic cycle of cross-national attraction
Guided by the principles of the morphogenetic approach, this study first attempts to outline
the complex structural origins of China's attraction to the Japanese vocational education
model. As the Chinese vocational education system is a subsystem of the national education
system, the crucial structural conditioning or emergent properties at three levels are identified: the emergence of vocational schools, the dominance of traditional education, China's
defeat and Japan's victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, internal dissatisfaction with traditional education, the demand for technical talents for modern industry development and
Japanese support for developing Chinese modern education.
The external contradiction relationship between China's defeat and Japan's victory in the
First Sino-Japanese War stimulated reformers to investigate Japan and figure out why China
was defeated and how China could become strong. The internal contradiction relationship
between internal dissatisfaction with traditional education and the dominance of traditional
education drove reformers to reform traditional education. The contingent complementarity
relationship between modern industry and vocational schools called for developing vocational schools. The external complementarity relationship between Japanese support for
developing Chinese modern education and internal dissatisfaction with traditional education
created good conditions for China to learn from Japanese educational reforms.
Directed by these situational logics, several programmes—including assigning officials to
Japan, sending students to study in Japan and translating Japanese materials—were initiated
to investigate Japan. Through these activities, officials' and intellectuals' understanding of Japanese education gradually deepened. They scandalised traditional education and made a great
effort to legitimate the reform of Chinese vocational education by borrowing from Japan.
Theoretically, the outcome of social interaction is the structural and cultural elaboration of
cross-national attraction at time T4. Chinese exploration of Japan led the Chinese to realise
the importance of modern education for national salvation and show a keen interest in Japanese vocational education.
The morphogenetic cycle of decision-making
At the decision-making stage, four key aspects of structural conditioning are identified: the
ideology of saving the country through education, the lack of a united national education
system, China's attraction to Japanese education (resulting from the interaction between the
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EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER
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structure and agency of the attraction stage), the growth of vocational schools and lack of a
vocational education system.
On the one hand, as more vocational schools were established around the country, China
needed to develop a national vocational education system to manage and supervise all
schools throughout the country. On the other hand, China's interest in and investigation of
Japanese education and the ideology of saving the country through education provided an
opportunity for China to build a national education system, including a national vocational
education system based on the Japanese model.
Under these situational logics, Zhang Baixi was appointed to develop a national education
system fashioned after the Japanese model. In doing so, Wu Rulun was dispatched to Japan
by Zhang Baixi to investigate Japanese education. In addition, Zhang Baixi invited several officials and intellectuals to work with him. In the process of making the 1902 school system, some
reformers such as Wu Rulun were too radical in their thinking, leading the Qing government
and some conservatives to blame Zhang Baixi for employing people too aggressively, which
laid the groundwork for the failure to effectively implement the 1902 school system.
With the great efforts of the Zhang Baixi team, the 1902 school system was promulgated
by the Qing government in 1902. Vocational schools at that time did not have a separate
vocational education system, but were attached to the appropriate level of general school.
The morphogenetic cycle of implementation
During the implementation stage, structural conditioning or emergent properties at the level
of the vocational education system, the level of the national education system and in the
broader context are identified. These include the state government and factional struggle at
the broader level, the dominance of traditional education and the 1902 national education
system at the national education system level, and structural conditioning and emergent
properties such as curriculum, textbooks and funding and their relations with the 1904 vocational education system at the vocational education level.
As an officially promulgated policy, the Qing government should theoretically protect
and ensure the implementation of the 1902 school system. The actors who supported the
development of vocational education were supposed to try to deal with all possible problems
that might arise in the process of implementation.
However, the 1902 school system was not successfully implemented. This was primarily
for two reasons: first, the actions and ideas of some individuals such as Wu Rulun during the
decision-making stage offended conservative interests, gradually intensifying the struggle
between factions; second, some elements of the 1902 school system greatly challenged
Chinese orthodoxies such as traditional education, particularly the Imperial examination
system.
This clearly changed the structural conditioning whereby the previous agential interaction
took place. Simultaneously, the end of the morphogenetic cycle of the 1902 school system
started a new morphogenetic cycle for China: the borrowing of the Japanese vocational
education model.
The 1904 school system
The morphogenetic cycle of cross-national attraction
In a similar fashion, the morphogenetic approach requires educational policy transfer to be
embedded in the realist context of time and space. The crucial structural conditioning or
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emergent properties identified in the previous morphogenetic cycle of cross-national attraction still existed in this morphogenetic cycle, which strengthened China's interest in Japanese vocational education.
Against this background, previous investigations into Japanese education continued,
including the assignment of officials to Japan, the sending of students to study in Japan and
the translation of Japanese materials.
As a result, China's continued investigation and understanding of Japanese education
has consolidated China's interest in the Japanese education model.
The morphogenetic cycle of decision-making
At the decision-making stage, critical structural conditioning or emergent properties include
the relations between China's interest in the Japanese education model, the lack of a unified
national education system and ideological conflicts between conservatives and reformers.
The contingent complementarity relationships between China's interest in the Japanese
education model and the lack of a unified national education system drove the Qing government to develop a new national education system based on the Japanese education model.
The ideological necessary contradiction relationships between the conservatives and the
reformers prompted the Qing government to appoint Rong Qing and Zhang Zhidong to work
with Zhang Baixi to develop the national education system. Zhang Zhidong—as the person
truly responsible for the development of the school system—had to reach a compromise
between these ideological contradictions.
As a result, guided by the doctrine of ‘Chinese learning as essence, Western learning as
utilities’, the 1904 school system was officially issued and promulgated.
The morphogenetic cycle of implementation
Similar to the previous morphogenetic cycle of implementation, three levels of structural
conditioning or emergent properties are identified, including the state government at the
broader level, the dominance of traditional education and the 1904 national education system
at the national education system level, and structural conditioning and emergent properties
such as curriculum, textbooks, funding and their relations with the 1904 vocational education
system at the vocational education level.
As with the 1902 school system, as an officially promulgated policy, the Qing government should theoretically have protected and ensured the implementation of the 1904
school system. Despite facing a severe financial crisis, the Qing government found ways
to ensure and protect the development of vocational education, guided by the doctrine of
‘Chinese learning as essence, Western learning as utilities’. More actors became involved in
promoting vocational education. The complementarity relationship between the curriculum,
textbooks and funding and vocational education motivated key human agencies such as
governors, local gentry, merchants and education associations to take strategic action to
address potential problems. The contradiction relationship between the Imperial examination system and the vocational education system drove reformers to seek to compromise
vocational education with the Imperial examination system, stimulating it by giving vocational
school graduates appropriate titles or official positions.
It is vital to highlight that the structural conditioning prior to social interactions of the previous morphogenetic cycle of implementation involved several sets of interrelated structures.
Obviously, there is little variation in the relationships mentioned above between structural
conditioning or emergent properties that have changed. However, the outcome of social
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EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER
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interaction has led to certain different effects on both the structural and human agency
levels. The implementation of the 1904 school system influenced the extent to which reformers were attracted to Japanese vocational education in the next morphogenetic cycle of
educational policy transfer.
CONCLUSION
This paper has outlined some of the current debates about educational policy transfer, particularly on the issue of structure and agency. While Rappleye suggests that the contextual map
of cross-national attraction aims to fill the gap of dealing with the interaction between structure and agency in educational policy transfer, it still leaves some methodological problems
for further research. This study has attempted to fill these voids and propose an additional
theoretical framework by applying Archer's morphogenetic approach to educational policy
transfer to understand the complex interaction between structure and agency in educational
policy transfer.
This framework makes several contributions by applying the morphogenetic approach in
educational policy transfer research. First, the study refines Rappleye's contextual map in
several ways. Rappleye proposed several questions of the contextual map of cross-national
attraction for future research, including: (1) Is there some interconnection between particular
actors and the strategies they choose? (Rappleye, 2006, p. 233) (2) How does context shift
during the life of a borrowed policy? (Rappleye, 2006, p. 238) (3) How have attraction and
transfer changed through history? (Rappleye, 2006, p. 238)
Applying the morphogenetic approach to educational policy transfer research can
effectively help to answer these questions, as a morphogenetic approach leads us to a
stronger conceptualisation of structure. Further, its analytical dualism enables researchers
to separate—for analytical purposes—human agency and structure involved in the attraction
stage of educational policy transfer, while also acknowledging their complex social interaction
and the possible ‘emergence’ of new phenomena as a result of social interaction. With this
theoretical perspective in mind, it is suggested that it is crucial to identify the pre-existence
of structural conditioning which reformers confront in the attraction stage.
In addition, only by embracing an analytical dualism between human agency and structure
can we fully comprehend and analyse their interplay in the attraction stage. The interaction
between different structural conditioning or emergent properties creates different situational
logics that direct agents to adopt specific strategies to either accept or reject the potential
policy of interest. In this manner, the attraction stage of educational policy transfer can be
perceived not only as a distinct event in the educational policy transfer process, but also as
a separate morphogenetic cycle in its own right. Similarly, the decision-making and implementation stages in educational transfer can be viewed as separate events of educational
transfer and separate morphogenetic cycles in their own right. In each phase of social interaction, the borrowed policy is continuously internalised and localised. As such, this practical
and social/theoretical model of educational policy transfer provides a more nuanced account
of the reform and change in dynamic educational policy transfer.
Second, this framework also informs us that changes in the practices and actions of different agents or groups cannot be explained by referring to a politically rational model of agentic actions and relationships. Depending on their interests, understandings and concerns,
agents may employ a variety of explanatory schemes. The above discussion reveals actors'
subjective interpretations and perceptions of the objective situations they encounter. For
example, the material and cultural interests of conservatives made them less receptive to
the demands of implementing the 1902 school system, which ultimately led to its abolition.
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Third, applying the morphogenetic approach to educational policy transfer calls for
a careful rethinking of the relationship between human agency, context and educational
policy transfer. As globalisation deepens, the challenge of educational policy transfer will
continue unabated, at least in the near future. Educational policy transfer research has to
some extent failed to engage with this challenge, especially as more institutions or agents
become involved in educational transfer, the channels of educational transfer are diverse
and the context of transfer becomes more complicated. This study provides a morphogenetic explanation of educational policy transfer processes and discusses the methodological
potential of critical realism in educational policy transfer research.
Fourth, this study's contribution of proposing to use the morphogenetic approach to
educational policy transfer research is not only academic, as it would also be a useful tool
for policymakers to see how their reforms are in operation. By identifying and recognising the generative power of material, cultural and human agency, this approach facilitates
a more comprehensive understanding of why, for example, a receiving country resists or
accepts proposed educational policy transfer. Furthermore, in the process of educational
policy transfer, the identification of material interests, factors in the cultural realm and the
interrelationships between them can increase their chances of successfully implementing
and localising borrowed policy or practices.
Nevertheless, the study retains some questions for further research, despite the contributions mentioned above. First, identifying the necessary internal and external contingent
structural conditioning and relational entities to clarify generative mechanisms can be a difficult and analytically confusing process. Even though the morphogenetic approach offers
researchers broad principles and flexibility with which to construct a theory of a particular
field, it is flawed in providing specificity and boundaries. It requires researchers to investigate
the emergent properties of structure, culture and people, as well as identify their relationships, with the aid of only a few theoretical concepts. For instance, given a specific mechanism in educational policy transfer, there may be several necessary internal relations and
interactions, some of which are likely to be more evident, pertinent or influential than others.
Bhaskar (2008) argues that unravelling these properties and their relationships requires a
combination of knowledge, practical techniques and perceptual skills. This also illustrates
the difficulty of discriminating between different candidate mechanisms in an open system
such as educational policy transfer. Sayer (2000) suggests that due to the shortcomings of
critical realism in providing precise and specific criteria, causal depth and empirical evidence
should be seriously considered in order to function with maximum explanatory power.
Second, the above example illustrating the applicability of the morphogenetic approach
to educational policy transfer suggests the necessity for further research into how structural conditioning or emergent properties affect the subjectivity of important agents such
as merchants and government officials, as well as agents' evaluation of the applicability
of borrowing particular policies. The presence of several influential actors with substantial
and divergent interests might further complicate the process of educational policy transfer.
More research on how key actors make choices and behave strategically in the process of
obstructing or promoting educational policy transfer may provide a deeper understanding of
the dynamics involved in its development, which often displays diverse and often contradictory logics.
Third, Archer has broadened the morphogenetic approach by focusing on the theory
of ‘reflexivity’ in an attempt to get beyond her previous theorising (Archer, 2010a).
Archer (2013, p. 1) argues that ‘reflexivity mediates between the objective structural and
cultural contexts confronting agents, who activate their properties as constraints and enablement as they pursue reflexively defined “projects” based on their concerns’. This theoretical
extension may provide fresh insights into understanding the interplay between social conditioning and agential responses that support and resist specific policies. Such an approach
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EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER
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could also be applied in more specific areas of educational policy transfer, such as in the
attraction or implementation stages.
Finally, like all other models and frameworks, the morphogenesis of educational policy
transfer is open to criticism and amendment. I anticipate that it will gradually evolve and
be refined as it is utilised to examine educational transfer in various contexts. It is worth
mentioning that if the framework is applied to other contexts and it is found that some structure and agency issues of the framework remain unresolved, then other related theories on
structure and agency issues (e.g., Bhaskar's theory and Bourdieu's theory) may be helpful.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr Yeow-Tong Chia, Dr Remy Low, Professor Anthony Welch, Professor
Helen Proctor, Professor Tim Allender, Associate Professor David Hirsh and two anonymous
reviewers for support and suggestions, none of whom should be held responsible for any
remaining mistakes or misinterpretations. Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Sydney, as part of the Wiley - The University of Sydney agreement via the Council of
Australian University Librarians.
F U N D I N G I N F O R M AT I O N
This study received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or
not-for-profit sectors.
C O N F L I C T O F I N T E R E S T S TAT E M E N T
The author has no competing interests to declare.
D ATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y S TAT E M E N T
The data used to support the findings of this study are available via the library repository of
the University of Sydney (https://www.library.sydney.edu.au/).
E T H I C A L S TAT E M E N T
This study does not contain any research involving animals or human participants.
ORCID
Yijun Yang
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2064-0323
ENDNOTES
1
This study grew out of my PhD thesis, which investigated how China borrowed vocational education from Japan
from 1895 to 1922 from the perspective of educational policy transfer. The contextual map of cross-national attraction proposed by Rappleye provided the theoretical framework for my research.
2
Spreen's (2001) thesis applied Archer's concept of ‘education negotiation’ to analyse how policy transfer and the
policy development process in South Africa occurred in different time periods. It is worth noting that the concept
of ‘education negotiation’ Spreen used is only a part of the theoretical origins of the morphogenetic approach.
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How to cite this article: Yang, Y. (2023). Exploring educational policy transfer:
A structure–agency perspective. British Educational Research Journal, 49, 693–710.
https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3862
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