Globalisation, education and policy research: Globalization and borrowed policies: The Israeli case of school empowerment

Over the past few decades, globalisation has emerged as a dominant feature of our reality (Zajda, Discourses of globalisation, cultural diversity, and values education. Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 2023). Similar ideas and qualities became prevalent worldwide moderating social and cultural differences. As a result, the world became a more connected and interdependent place, characterized by increased interactions between regions and populations and by a rapid shift of ideas and knowledge. Within the sphere of national policy setting, a prevailing assumption among policy analysts is that globalization leads to a convergence of national policies. Convergence is the tendency of policies to grow more alike, in the form of increasing similarity in structures, processes, and performances. Convergence occurs through the homogenization of societies via industrialization and modernization. The ability of ideas to permeate across borders has existed for centuries, but advances in telecommunications and computers have made this process much easier and quicker. The chapter discusses policy borrowings and the shift from centralisation to school autonomy.