Globalisation, Education Policy, and Change: The Introduction of Managerial Policies in Education Systems: A Comparison Between France and Israel

The aim of this book chapter is to analyze the transformations of educational policies that have taken place since the early 2000s in France and Israel, transformations linked to the withdrawal of nation-states in a period of budgetary restraint and a quest for rationalization and efficiency in public administrations. The comparison between France and Israel is interesting because of the similarities between the two education systems, especially their highly centralized governance and the importance of the role of the state. Using a neo-Weberian approach, we will compare the development of managerial policies since the 1970s, the evolution of the discourse anchored on decentralization, standards, performance measurement and accountability and their implementation in the field of education by encouraging school autonomy, parental school choice and evaluation by students’ achievements. More generally, this study aims to better understand the contribution of educational policies to the transformations of education systems following the adoption of the managerial discourse disseminated by international organizations but interpreted differently and adapted to the socio-political contexts and to the discourse structuration in each country.