Lifelong learning policies in Europe and Greece. Did “Policy Transfer” take place?

Abstract

The policies related to lifelong learning are policies that are strongly internationalized in their formulation. In this paper, we focus on the “transfer” of policies and related programmes from the European level to the national level. We explore the turning points in the evolution of these policies at the European and national level and the existence and characteristics of possible policy transfer. In the introduction of this paper, we briefly explain the broader context in which lifelong learning policies are developed and then we describe the methodology of research and conclude with the central research question of this paper. In the next part, we discuss and analyze the theoretical notion of “policy transfer”. We are going to discuss its definition, the categories of policy transfer, the types of what is being transferred, and the manner and prerequisites of a possible successful transfer. Then we will focus on international organizations and their role in the promotion of education policies (in our case, lifelong learning policies). The European Union (EU) will be at the centre of this analysis. Finally, we intend to present a timeline of the lifelong learning policies that have been promoted and established during the last decades at two levels: the European and the national (Greek) level. Based on these data, we are going to conduct an initial analysis using the theoretical tool of “policy transfer” and produce conclusions about the individual characteristics of lifelong learning policy transfer between EU and Greek policy subsystems.