Policy borrowing and evidence in danish education policy preparation: The case of the public school reform of 2013

Abstract

Reder and Ydesen explore the evidence behind the 2013 Danish public school reform using a mixed-methods design as well as the political context surrounding the reform preparations. By combining quantitative bibliometric analysis and qualitative interviews of the key policymakers behind the reform, they identify different types of policy knowledge. Reder and Ydesen focus particularly on the role of international large-scale assessments and international organizations such as the OECD in legitimizing the need of the reform and identifying reference societies, such as the Canadian province of Ontario, which heavily influenced the reform contents. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the findings and presents a very uneven evidence landscape consisting mainly of what-works types of evidence and a distinct absence of broader types of evidence.