Reform in Stable Systems (Austria and Belgium [Flanders]): The Impossible Dream?

Abstract

Policy cultures are closely related to the sociohistorical context of a country, and that is why mere policy borrowing does not work easily. Nevertheless, recent global interventions, such as international testing of student learning, have had a similar effect on school systems around the developed world. The intersection of local history with a strong reaction to international test results will be used in this chapter to compare the policy cultures in Austria and Flanders,¹ which share a long tradition of resistance against public ranking or comparisons among schools. Although the two small countries have different histories and different cultural contexts, they share some important similarities in policy cultures. Their educational systems are based on stability and conflict avoidance. Consequently, national decisions to change educational policy are met by resistance from stakeholder groups, which results in compromises that minimize the pressure to change. In spite of this culture of stakeholder and local control, global system interventions in the form of large-scale assessments have led to paradigmatic changes in the political landscape in both systems.