Levels of policy drivers: Introducing and demonstrating an analytical framework for education policy spread

Abstract

A plethora of scholars investigate how policies spread globally. This paper establishes an analytical framework to structure empirical macro-quantitative research on global education policy spread and enable this analysis to be more comprehensive. Different theories and concepts of drivers for education policy are structured into three distinct levels of origin: the domestic, and the horizontal and vertical interrelational level of policy drivers (LoPD). Analyzing education policy spread considering these levels, it will be argued, enriches analysis normally focusing only on one single level. An exemplary empirical application on the spread of Adult Basic Education policies suggests the merits of this framework. While not contradicting existing theories, it allows a more thorough analysis of mechanisms of policy spread. Hence, the LoPD framework can serve as a springboard to analyze policy spread in a more structured and holistic way. Thus, it can focus macro-quantitative research on education policy spread on optimizing measures.