Federalism and Education

Ongoing Challenges and Policy Strategies in Ten Countries

Edited by:
Kenneth K. Wong, Brown University
Felix Knüpling, Forum of Federations
Mario Kölling, Spanish National Distance Education University

A volume in the series: Research in Educational Policy: Local, National, and Global Perspectives. Editor(s): Kenneth K. Wong, Brown University.

Published 2018

Federalism has played a central role in charting educational progress in many countries. With an evolving balance between centralization and decentralization, federalism is designed to promote accountability standards without tempering regional and local preferences. Federalism facilitates negotiations both vertically between the central authority and local entities as well as horizontally among diverse interests. Innovative educational practices are often validated by a few local entities prior to scaling up to the national level. Because of the division of revenue sources between central authority and decentralized entities, federalism encourages a certain degree of fiscal competition at the local and regional level. The balance of centralization and decentralization also varies across institutional and policy domains, such as the legislative framework for education, drafting of curricula, benchmarking for accountability, accreditation, teacher training, and administrative responsibilities at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.

Given these critical issues in federalism and education, this volume examines ongoing challenges and policy strategies in ten countries, namely Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. These chapters and the introductory overview aim to examine how countries with federal systems of government design, govern, finance, and assure quality in their educational systems spanning from early childhood to secondary school graduation. Particular attention is given to functional division between governmental layers of the federal system as well as mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation both vertically and horizontally. The chapters aim to draw out comparative lessons and experiences in an area of great importance to not only federal countries but also countries that are emerging toward a federal system.

CONTENTS
Federalism and Education: Cross-National Lessons on Governance, Standards, and Accountability for the 21st Century, Kenneth K. Wong, Felix Knüpling, Mario Kölling, and Diana Chebenova. Schooling Policy in Australia: Concurrent, Complex, and Contested, Bronwyn Hinz. Federalism and Education in Austria, Peter Bußjäger. The Organization of Education Policies: A Mirror of Belgian Political History and Federalism, Peter Bursens, Petra Meier, and Peter Van Petegem. Federalism and Education: The Canadian Case, Jennifer Wallner. Educational Federalism in Germany: Tensions Between the States’ Autonomy and Cooperative Unitarization, Henrik Scheller. The Italian Education System: Constitutional Design, Organization and Policy-Making, Elisabeth Alber and Martina Trettel. Federalism and Education: Governance, Standards, and Innovation for the 21st Century in Spain, Mario Kölling and Xavier Rambla. The Pros and Cons of Horizontal Federalism: Primary and Secondary Education Governance in Switzerland, Béatrice Zielgler, Monika Waldis, Daniel Kübler, Andri Gustin and Andreas Glaser. Federalism and Education: The Case of the UK, Deborah Wilson and Llorenc O’Prey. Public Education as a Shared State-Federal Function in the United States: Institutional Changes and Policy Challenges, Kenneth K. Wong.