Theoretical Foundations

This chapter provides the theoretical framework for this study by discussing the key concepts, theories and models of educational policy transfer. The first part explores the way in which the concept of policy transfer has been used by different scholars. It then introduces the development of policy transfer study and the main theoretical frameworks in comparative education and political science. Finally, the chapter makes a case for drawing upon the Philip and Ochs’s framework of the Four Stages of Educational Policy Borrowing and the Contextual Map of Cross-national Attraction proposed by Rappleye as the key theoretical foundations for this study.