ABSTRACT
Baun (2011) point out that education policies can be influenced by a variety of commitments, values and experiences, and that these should be made clear in frameworks for policy implementation. They also contend that anyone using such frameworks should be informed regarding the reality that policies are 'enacted in material conditions, with varying resources'. Professional contexts include 'values, teacher commitments and experiences, and "policy management" in schools'. External contexts are conceptualized as pressures and expectations that arise as a result of the influence of broader local and national policies. Sir Michael Sadler, British historian, educationist and university administrator, stressed that national education systems could only be understood by first of all understanding the national contexts in which they functioned. Sadler's position either implicitly or explicitly influenced the thinking of various world-leading comparative educationists in the twentieth century.
