ABSTRACT
Chapter three examines new forms of order that have emerged since the education revolution period. I identify three dominant forms that emerged out of my policy analysis and interviews with policy actors. First is a strong and largely unquestioned faith in the power of national policy alignment through data, evidence and standards to produce greater transparency and accountability, and to unite Australia's state and territory schooling systems around policies and practices that are ‘proven to work’. While discussions about data, evidence and standards can be highly constructive, recent trends have produced some adverse impacts, including a limiting of the knowledge, expertise and forms of evidence that are able to influence policy processes. Second is a significant increase in policy sharing and learning across states and territories as a result of intensified intergovernmental collaboration and co-design. This new intergovernmental order is bringing governments together in new ways and reshaping the norms for how decisions are made moving forward. Third is a rapid rise of global imaginations, forces and connections, central to which are powerful new networks between Australian and international policy actors. The OECD has emerged as a major source of influence, convening global conversations, working closely with nations to shape ideas and practices, and providing forms of external validation. Policy actors from different Australian states are also positioned very differently in relation to global policy networks and flows, which raises questions about who does or does not have the ability to access or influence global reform conversations.
