Introducing A Free Schools Policy: A Cross-national Comparison

Known variously as free schools, charter schools or partnership schools, similarly autonomous state-funded schools have been introduced in several countries over recent decades. This thesis seeks to explain why similar such policies were introduced in England in 2010 and New Zealand in 2012, but no similar policy has been introduced in Scotland. Kingdon’s Multiple Streams framework was used as the backbone of the theoretical framework and, along with policy transfer theory, proved to be very useful in identifying how and why the policies were introduced in England and New Zealand – and what differences make this unlikely to happen in Scotland. It was found that global education policy transfers are subject to national political processes and values. In England and New Zealand these processes and values facilitated the introduction of the policy, whereas in Scotland they prevented it.