, PLEASE USE THIS DOCUMENT AS A GUIDE ONLY
Question 1
1.1. Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow.
a) What, in your view, are the challenges associated with the implementation of models/policies
of education borrowed from foreign countries?
The implementation of educational models or policies borrowed from foreign countries presents
several significant challenges, as identified in the work of Johannes Seroto et al. (2020). These
include:
The problem of contextual inappropriateness. Education systems are not neutral technical
instruments that can be transplanted from one context to another without distortion. Johannes Seroto
et al. (2020) emphasise a basic theorem of comparative education: education systems are the
outcome of contextual forces including geography, demography, social systems, economy, political
systems, and religion. A policy that succeeds in one national context may fail entirely in another
because the underlying societal conditions differ. For example, a school accountability system
designed for a high-income, low-corruption context may produce perverse incentives (such as
cheating or teaching to the test) in a context with weaker institutional safeguards.
The risk of uncritical borrowing without adaptation. The historical tendency, particularly in
post-colonial nations, has been to adopt the education systems of former colonial powers through a
strategy of “more of the same”—simply expanding inherited systems without rethinking their
suitability. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) provide the example of South Africa’s adoption of
Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) from Australia and New Zealand after 1994, which “did not take
account of the context, resource bases and classroom realities of South African schools.” The result
was policy failure, teacher frustration, and subsequent curriculum revisions.
The persistence of asymmetrical power relations in knowledge production. The global knowledge
production system remains centred in the Global North. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) observe that
publishing houses, academic journals, and dominant theoretical paradigms are located primarily in
Western Europe and North America. This asymmetry means that borrowing countries often import
not only policies but also the underlying epistemological assumptions, values, and problem-framings
of the lending countries, which may be inappropriate or even harmful in local contexts.
The problem of incomplete or selective borrowing. Borrowing countries often adopt only the visible,
measurable components of a foreign policy (such as standardised testing or school inspection
systems) while neglecting the supporting infrastructure, cultural values, and institutional capacities
that made the policy effective in its original context. For example, adopting Finland’s teacher
accountability system without also adopting Finland’s competitive teacher selection, master’s-level
teacher education, and high professional autonomy is unlikely to produce similar outcomes.
Resistance from local stakeholders. Borrowed policies may encounter resistance from teachers,
parents, unions, and local communities who perceive them as foreign impositions that disrespect
local traditions, values, and professional practices. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) note that in many
parts of the Global South, “learning for learners amounts to rote learning,” and imported
learner-centred pedagogies may conflict with cultural expectations about the role of the teacher and
the nature of knowledge.
, b) As an “expert” in Comparative and International Education, what advice would you give to a
borrowing country, to help overcome the above challenges?
Advice One: Conduct thorough contextual analysis before borrowing. Before adopting any foreign
policy or model, the borrowing country should undertake a systematic analysis of the contextual
forces that shaped that policy in its country of origin, as well as a parallel analysis of its own
contextual conditions. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) identify the key contextual factors shaping
education systems: geography, demography, social system, economy, political system, religion, and
life and world view. A policy match should be sought not at the surface level (what the policy looks
like) but at the deeper level of functional fit with local conditions.
Advice Two: Adopt a strategy of selective, critical, and adapted borrowing rather than wholesale
transplantation. Borrowing should be a creative, transformative process—what some scholars call
“indigenisation” or “hybridisation”—rather than simple copying. Borrowing countries should
identify the underlying problem they wish to solve, study how multiple countries have addressed
similar problems, extract general principles, and then design a locally tailored solution rather than
importing a foreign blueprint. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) caution that “when an education system
is simply transposed from one context onto another, chances are high that it will be inappropriate for
and even dysfunctional within the new context.”
Advice Three: Invest in local research and knowledge production capacity. To reduce dependency on
Northern-generated knowledge, borrowing countries should strengthen their own educational
research infrastructure, including university-based research centres, doctoral training programmes,
and scholarly journals. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) call for “the Global South to begin recentring
and legitimising their histories and histories of education.” Local researchers are better positioned to
understand local conditions, evaluate borrowed policies in context, and generate indigenous
solutions.
Advice Four: Engage local stakeholders in the borrowing and adaptation process. Borrowed policies
are more likely to succeed if they are co-developed or co-adapted with the participation of teachers,
parents, local administrators, and community representatives. Participatory processes build
ownership, surface contextual constraints and opportunities that outsiders may miss, and generate
locally legitimate adaptations. Stakeholder engagement should begin before the borrowing decision
is made and continue throughout implementation and evaluation.
Advice Five: Pilot borrowed policies before full-scale implementation. Rather than implementing a
borrowed policy nationally all at once, borrowing countries should conduct pilot studies in a limited
number of diverse sites (urban, rural, wealthy, poor, different regions). Pilots allow for the
identification of implementation problems, the testing of adaptations, the estimation of resource
requirements, and the generation of local evidence about effectiveness before committing to
system-wide adoption. Pilots should be rigorously evaluated, and the results should inform decisions
about whether, how, and where to scale up.
Question 1
1.1. Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow.
a) What, in your view, are the challenges associated with the implementation of models/policies
of education borrowed from foreign countries?
The implementation of educational models or policies borrowed from foreign countries presents
several significant challenges, as identified in the work of Johannes Seroto et al. (2020). These
include:
The problem of contextual inappropriateness. Education systems are not neutral technical
instruments that can be transplanted from one context to another without distortion. Johannes Seroto
et al. (2020) emphasise a basic theorem of comparative education: education systems are the
outcome of contextual forces including geography, demography, social systems, economy, political
systems, and religion. A policy that succeeds in one national context may fail entirely in another
because the underlying societal conditions differ. For example, a school accountability system
designed for a high-income, low-corruption context may produce perverse incentives (such as
cheating or teaching to the test) in a context with weaker institutional safeguards.
The risk of uncritical borrowing without adaptation. The historical tendency, particularly in
post-colonial nations, has been to adopt the education systems of former colonial powers through a
strategy of “more of the same”—simply expanding inherited systems without rethinking their
suitability. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) provide the example of South Africa’s adoption of
Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) from Australia and New Zealand after 1994, which “did not take
account of the context, resource bases and classroom realities of South African schools.” The result
was policy failure, teacher frustration, and subsequent curriculum revisions.
The persistence of asymmetrical power relations in knowledge production. The global knowledge
production system remains centred in the Global North. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) observe that
publishing houses, academic journals, and dominant theoretical paradigms are located primarily in
Western Europe and North America. This asymmetry means that borrowing countries often import
not only policies but also the underlying epistemological assumptions, values, and problem-framings
of the lending countries, which may be inappropriate or even harmful in local contexts.
The problem of incomplete or selective borrowing. Borrowing countries often adopt only the visible,
measurable components of a foreign policy (such as standardised testing or school inspection
systems) while neglecting the supporting infrastructure, cultural values, and institutional capacities
that made the policy effective in its original context. For example, adopting Finland’s teacher
accountability system without also adopting Finland’s competitive teacher selection, master’s-level
teacher education, and high professional autonomy is unlikely to produce similar outcomes.
Resistance from local stakeholders. Borrowed policies may encounter resistance from teachers,
parents, unions, and local communities who perceive them as foreign impositions that disrespect
local traditions, values, and professional practices. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) note that in many
parts of the Global South, “learning for learners amounts to rote learning,” and imported
learner-centred pedagogies may conflict with cultural expectations about the role of the teacher and
the nature of knowledge.
, b) As an “expert” in Comparative and International Education, what advice would you give to a
borrowing country, to help overcome the above challenges?
Advice One: Conduct thorough contextual analysis before borrowing. Before adopting any foreign
policy or model, the borrowing country should undertake a systematic analysis of the contextual
forces that shaped that policy in its country of origin, as well as a parallel analysis of its own
contextual conditions. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) identify the key contextual factors shaping
education systems: geography, demography, social system, economy, political system, religion, and
life and world view. A policy match should be sought not at the surface level (what the policy looks
like) but at the deeper level of functional fit with local conditions.
Advice Two: Adopt a strategy of selective, critical, and adapted borrowing rather than wholesale
transplantation. Borrowing should be a creative, transformative process—what some scholars call
“indigenisation” or “hybridisation”—rather than simple copying. Borrowing countries should
identify the underlying problem they wish to solve, study how multiple countries have addressed
similar problems, extract general principles, and then design a locally tailored solution rather than
importing a foreign blueprint. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) caution that “when an education system
is simply transposed from one context onto another, chances are high that it will be inappropriate for
and even dysfunctional within the new context.”
Advice Three: Invest in local research and knowledge production capacity. To reduce dependency on
Northern-generated knowledge, borrowing countries should strengthen their own educational
research infrastructure, including university-based research centres, doctoral training programmes,
and scholarly journals. Johannes Seroto et al. (2020) call for “the Global South to begin recentring
and legitimising their histories and histories of education.” Local researchers are better positioned to
understand local conditions, evaluate borrowed policies in context, and generate indigenous
solutions.
Advice Four: Engage local stakeholders in the borrowing and adaptation process. Borrowed policies
are more likely to succeed if they are co-developed or co-adapted with the participation of teachers,
parents, local administrators, and community representatives. Participatory processes build
ownership, surface contextual constraints and opportunities that outsiders may miss, and generate
locally legitimate adaptations. Stakeholder engagement should begin before the borrowing decision
is made and continue throughout implementation and evaluation.
Advice Five: Pilot borrowed policies before full-scale implementation. Rather than implementing a
borrowed policy nationally all at once, borrowing countries should conduct pilot studies in a limited
number of diverse sites (urban, rural, wealthy, poor, different regions). Pilots allow for the
identification of implementation problems, the testing of adaptations, the estimation of resource
requirements, and the generation of local evidence about effectiveness before committing to
system-wide adoption. Pilots should be rigorously evaluated, and the results should inform decisions
about whether, how, and where to scale up.
