Comparing two transfer spaces over time and against a global script: the case of school-autonomy-with-accountability

The study compares the selective adoption of the global school-autonomy-with-accountability (SAWA) reform in two cantons of Switzerland (Zurich and St. Gallen) over the period 1995–2015. The authors dissect the SAWA reform into three aspects: its theory of change, its bundle of policies, and its preferred policy instruments to achieve and sustain change. Methodologically, the study draws on a database of over 1,200 policy-relevant documents and expert interviews related to the so-called ‘outcomes-oriented school reform’ (German: wirkungsorientierte Schulreform) or SAWA, respectively. In an endeavor to advance research on policy borrowing, the authors propose a distinction between six temporal features of policy transfer: time, timing, tempo, lifespan, age, and sequence. They find that SAWA’s neoliberal theory of change was not adopted. However, select policies and instruments were transferred and translated into the Swiss context. Furthermore, some policies expanded over time (standardized testing), some were dropped after a while (performance pay), some were kept on the books but, with age, hollowed out over time (external evaluation), and some were long-lived and were institutionalized (professional school management).