published in Mirazchiyski, E.K., Štremfel, U., Alfirević, N., Čačija, L.N. (2023). Education Policies and Reforms in Slovenia and Croatia: Shared History, Diverging Paths. In: Krejsler, J.B., Moos, L. (eds) School Policy Reform in Europe. Educational Governance Research, vol 22. Springer, Cham.
In this chapter, the authors analyse the education policy and reform patterns in Slovenia and Croatia, by exploring their common roots during the socialist era and the diverging development paths since the 1990s. General development trends are identified and analysed, by exploring the influences of neoliberal and transnational approaches, with a particular focus on international large-scale student assessments (ILSAs) and their role in shaping the national policies. Particular national issues are further explored, including the policy-borrowing and policy-lending patterns, their underlying political/ideological drivers and other issues where the two countries diverge from the transnational patterns. Comparative analysis is based on the authors’ review of the ILSAs data, the qualitative evaluation of the European Education & Training framework and national strategic policy documents. At the end of the chapter, the authors develop a critical perspective on the motives and timing of Slovenian and Croatian education policy-making by referring to the reform initiatives and their impact; joining/withdrawing from some cycles of ILSA and comparative studies; bilateral/regional cooperation efforts. Therefore, they show that policy-making in education is not only about modernisation and reform processes, but that it is tightly coupled with the ideological presumptions and preferences, adopted by the political actors. Especially in the case of Croatia, Europeanisation is often used as a general argument for the formal adoption of ambitious education reform agenda(s), which are rarely fully implemented.
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