French and U.S. Modes of Educational Regulation Facing Modernity

Similar principles guide the educational reforms currently taking place in most countries: ensuring that all eligible people can attend school, ensuring that the skills and knowledge imparted are relevant to the real world, ensuring educational institutions are accountable for results through more frequent use of evaluations and feedback, and ensuring that parents and students assume more responsibility for education. It is tempting to think that these reforms are spreading because they are encouraged by such international organizations as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Commission, or the World Bank or, alternatively, by influential countries such as the United States. Some authors consider these reforms as representing a new form of colonialism that endangers national cultures. Some even call it an “epidemic.” The movements behind these reforms are all the harder to explain because rich countries are not economically dependent on international organizations’ subsidies. Institutional theory may provide the answer: countries’ educational systems increasingly look alike because countries copy each other. This copying is facilitated by membership in international organizations.

This paper postulates that this common model of education is spreading because it fits the current needs of educational governance in highly industrialized societies. Because the requirements educational systems must satisfy are similar, the solutions are similar. Even a cursory examination of the assumptions that shape educational policy across the globe reveals that, in fact, countries share many of them. For example, education is increasingly necessary to lead a good life, in particular to avoid unemployment. High wages and good working conditions often require many years of schooling. As a result, citizens demand an effective education for their children.