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 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 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 693 YANG 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 694 695 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG 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. 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 696 697 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 698 699 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG 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. 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 700 FIGURE 2 701 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, 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 702 703 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 704 705 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG 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. 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 706 707 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG 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. REFERENCES Archer, M. (2013). Reflexivity. Sociopedia, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/205684601373 Archer, M. S. (1995). Realist social theory: The morphogenetic approach. Cambridge University Press. https://doi. org/10.1017/CBO9780511557675 Archer, M. S. (2010a). Conversations about reflexivity. Taylor & Francis. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/usyd/ detail.action?docID=465428 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 708 709 Archer, M. S. (2010b). Morphogenesis versus structuration: On combining structure and action. The British Journal of Sociology, 61(s1), 225–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01245.x Barmeier, H. (2012). Reciprocal cross-school attraction in domestic educational policy borrowing: An initial conceptualization. Research in Comparative and International Education, 7(2), 192–208. https://doi.org/10.2304/ rcie.2012.7.2.192 Bhaskar, R. (2008). A realist theory of science. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203090732 Bhaskar, R. (2010). Reclaiming reality: A critical introduction to contemporary philosophy. Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203843314 Crossley, M. (2019). Policy transfer, sustainable development and the contexts of education. Compare, 49(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2018.1558811 Crossley, M. (2022). Policy transfer, context sensitivity, and epistemic justice: Commentary and overview. Educational Research and Evaluation, 27(3–4), 357–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2022.2041876 do Amaral, M. P. (2018). Influencing the other: Transnational actors and knowledge transfer in education. In M. Middell (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of transregional studies (pp. 589–598). Routledge. Evans, M., & Davies, J. (1999). Understanding policy transfer: A multi-level, multi-disciplinary perspective. Public Administration, 77(2), 361–385. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9299.00158 Gardinier, M. P. (2015). Middlemen and midwives of reform: The in-between worlds of Albanian educational policy-makers and professionals. Comparative Education, 51(2), 276–292. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305006 8.2014.953802 Ge (Rochelle), Y., & Ho, K. C. (2022). Belt and road initiatives: Implications for China's internationalisation of tertiary-level education. Educational Research and Evaluation, 27(3–4), 260–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/13 803611.2022.2041858 Giddens, A. (1979). Central problems in social theory: Action, structure, and contradiction in social analysis. University of California Press. Kim, S. (2017). Actors and ideology for educational policy transfer: The case of education reforms in the two Koreas during the Soviet and US military occupation. Oxford Review of Education, 43(1), 55–68. Marsh, D., & Sharman, J. C. (2009). Policy diffusion and policy transfer. Policy Studies, 30(3), 269–288. https://doi. org/10.1080/01442870902863851 Musyimi, C. M., Malechwanzi, J., & Heng, L. (2018). The belt and road initiative and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Kenya: The Kenya–China TVET project. Frontiers of Education in China, 13(3), 346–374. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-018-0017-x Myint Thu, T. M. M. (2021). The integration of a new kindergarten curriculum in Myanmar: Gaps between policy and the engagement of personnel in real settings. Education 3–13, 51, 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/0300427 9.2021.1958893 Ochs, K. (2006). Cross-national policy borrowing and educational innovation: Improving achievement in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Oxford Review of Education, 32(5), 599–618. O’Donnell, M. (2010). Structure and Agency. SAGE Publications. Perry, L., & Tor, G.-H. (2008). Understanding educational transfer: Theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks. Prospects, 38(4), 509–526. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-009-9092-3 Phillips, D., & Ochs, K. (2003). Processes of policy borrowing in education: Some explanatory and analytical devices. Comparative Education, 39(4), 451–461. Phillips, D., & Ochs, K. (2004a). Educational policy borrowing: Historical perspectives. Symposium Books. Phillips, D., & Ochs, K. (2004b). Researching policy borrowing: Some methodological challenges in comparative education. British Educational Research Journal, 30(6), 773–784. Portnoi, L. M. (2016). Policy borrowing and reform in education: Globalized processes and local contexts. Palgrave Macmillan. Rappleye, J. (2006). Theorizing educational transfer: Toward a conceptual map of the context of cross-national attraction. Research in Comparative and International Education, 1(3), 223–240. https://doi.org/10.2304/ rcie.2006.1.3.223 Rappleye, J. (2007). Exploring cross-national attraction in education: Some historical comparisons of American and Chinese attraction to Japanese education. Symposium Books. Rappleye, J., Imoto, Y., & Horiguchi, S. (2011). Towards ‘thick description’ of educational transfer: Understanding a Japanese institution's ‘import’ of European language policy. Comparative Education, 47(4), 411–432. Sayer, A. (2000). Realism and social science. SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446218730 Schriewer, J. (1989). The twofold character of comparative education: Cross-cultural comparison and externalization to world situations. Prospects, 19, 389–406. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02207633 Schriewer, J. (2000). World system and interrelationship networks: The internationalization of education and the role of comparative inquiry. In T. S. Popkewitz (Ed.), Educational knowledge: Changing relationships between the state, civil society, and the educational community (pp. 305–343). Suny Press. Scott, D., Terano, M., Slee, R., Husbands, C., & Wilkins, R. (2016). Policy transfer & educational change. SAGE. 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL POLICY TRANSFER YANG Spreen, C. A. M. (2001). Globalization and educational policy borrowing: Mapping outcomes-based education in South Africa. Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University. http://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/304687438/ abstract/6C735E96AF3E4E48PQ/33 Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2012). Understanding policy borrowing and lending: Building comparative policy studies. In G. Steiner-Khamsi & F. Waldow (Eds.), World yearbook of education 2012: Policy borrowing and lending in education (pp. 3–17). Routledge. Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2014). Cross-national policy borrowing: Understanding reception and translation. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 34(2), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2013.875649 Tan, C. (2016). Educational borrowing in China: Looking west or looking east? Routledge. Webb, T. S. (2014). Examining the geopolitics of aid in education: A comparison of the United States Peace Corps and the Nigeria Technical Aid Corps in Namibia. Ed.D. thesis, Teachers College, Columbia University. http:// search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/1545892505/abstract/91B465BDB8474C3EPQ/11 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 14693518, 2023, 4, Downloaded from https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3862 by Cochrane Japan, Wiley Online Library on [03/04/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 710
0
You can add this document to your study collection(s)
Sign in Available only to authorized usersYou can add this document to your saved list
Sign in Available only to authorized users(For complaints, use another form )