ABSTRACT
This chapter is a critique of the scientific and policy rationales for transnational standardization. It analyzes two examples of policy export: early childhood standards in one of North America's oldest Indigenous communities, and the ongoing development of international standards and comparative rankings for university research and teaching. The chapter examines calls for American education to look to Finland, Canada and Singapore for models of reform and innovation, focusing on the complex historical, cultural and political settlements at work in these countries. American educational research, innovation and reform have travelled across borders, just as European colonial education did in centuries before. There has been a transnational generalizing across borders, often uncritically, often as part of aid and development programs, and often with little close analysis of its cultural and social effects. The chapter emphasis on the constituent role of cultural historical context, and political economic factors in the formation of policy and practice.
