ABSTRACT
Contributions from the neo-institutionalist strand of comparative education research have proven to be particularly compelling in explaining quasi-isomorphous educational change that can be observed across the globe (Meyer and Ramirez 2009). To many, world culture analyses – for instance, of the global expansion of mass education, or the impressive upswing of ‘human rights’ as a topic in school curricula – are far more plausible than their more historicist counterparts which aim to explain such change in terms of nation-specific dynamics (Meyer, Ramirez and Nuhoglu Soysal 1992; Ramirez, Suárez and Meyer 2007). However, even in a highly globalised world there are domains of educational systems where change is far less isomorphous across countries and cannot be explained as resulting from the diffusion of Western rationalised myths. One such important domain is the field of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), the organisation of which varies greatly across different countries, although some evidence points to areas of convergence (Greinert 1996; Thelen 2004).
