Ken Spours

Restrictive and expansive policy learning – challenges and strategies for knowledge exchange in upper secondary education across the four countries of the UK

Abstract This article examines the challenges and possibilities for UK policy learning in relation to upper secondary education (USE) across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (NI) within current national and global policy contexts. Drawing on a range of international literature, the article explores the concepts of ‘restrictive’ and ‘expansive’ policy learning and develops a framework of dimensions for examining what is taking place across the UK at a time of change for all four national USE systems. From an examination of recent national policy literatures and interviews with key policy actors within the ‘UK laboratory’, we found that the conditions for expansive policy learning had markedly deteriorated due to ‘accelerating divergence’ between the three smaller countries and a dominant England that has been pursuing an ‘extreme Anglo Saxon education model’. The article also notes that some aspects of policy learning continue to take place ‘beneath the radar’ between UK and wide civil society organisations. This activity is more prevalent across the three smaller countries although each, to differing degrees, is still constrained by its position in relation to the UK as a whole.

Bridging divides – social science, educational policy and the improvement of education and training systems: an appreciation the contribution of David Raffe (1950–2015)

Abstract This Introduction provides an overview of the distinctive contribution of the late David Raffe to educational research in the UK and internationally over a 40-year period. His wide-ranging research on post-compulsory education and training systems was enriched by the development of conceptual distinctions that have become part of the lingua franca of sociology and the study of education reform. David’s particular style of scholarship focused on the improvement of education systems through collaborative working; historical and comparative analysis and the processes of policy learning. In particular he argued that both researchers and policy actors should understand the specificities of their own national contexts rather than simply engage in ‘policy borrowing’ from other contexts or countries. The Introduction also outlines how the various contributors to the journal have engaged with David’s scholarship, and demonstrates the continuing relevance of his intellectual legacy to understanding today’s turbulent political and policy world.