About the Book
This book analyses the global diffusion of key competencies-based education (CBE) as a “global education policy” (GEP), focusing on China’s process of adoption and adaptation.
Based on a six-year empirical study combining interviews, observations, and document analysis, it examines how national and local actors interpret, modify, and resist CBE. Constructing and applying a four-stage framework for the GEP transfer process, the book integrates macro-level analysis of global forces with micro-level analysis of specific policy changes at the national level, and bridges theoretical and practical perspectives through both macro-level policy analysis and micro-level case studies.
The book provides valuable insights and implications of policy formulation and educational practice for educators, policy makers, and researchers interested in the dynamics of global policy transfer, localised educational reforms, and the complexities of reform in a globalised world. The case study of China’s implementation and localisation of CBE will also inform global efforts to adapt and integrate CBE in diverse educational contexts.
Table of Contents:
I Educational Transfer in an Era of Globalisation II Competency-Based Education as a Global Education Policy III Key Competencies-Based Education Reform in China: From Global Policy to Chinese Policy IV The Interpretation and Implementation of Key Competencies-Based Education at the Provincial Level V The Interpretation and Implementation of Competencies-Based Education at the School Level VI Conclusions and Implications
About the Author :
Li Deng is an associate professor at the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University. Her research focuses on comparative studies and education policy. She has published articles on key competencies-based education comparisons between China, the US, and Finland.
Review :
“Astonishingly detailed portrait of a global policy moving into and through China, rich with interviews of policy makers, provincial teacher educators, teachers and students, plus classroom observations. A landmark study of policy transfer, and a challenge to the notion of a uniform global best practice.”
Kathryn Anderson-Levitt, Professor Emerita, University of Michigan–Dearborn
“Li Deng’s book offers a thoughtful, comprehensive analysis of how global education policies are translated into local realities in China. It provides valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and scholars seeking to bridge theory and practice in today’s complex educational landscape.”
Zongyi Deng, Professor, University College London
“Professor Li Deng’s book is an eye opener in the transformations of education in China responding to global education. With elegant and precise writing Professor Li Deng discusses why and how facing the transformation of the global economy, Chinese policymakers introduced competence-based education. At the same time, this book shows how global and local forces are adapted to local conditions. A central thesis is that the global context is re-contextualized and transformed-in-practice while deeply informing the education of Chinese citizens. Because its attention to detail, quality analyses and empirical data, this book is a must-to-read contribution to contemporary Chinese education.”
Carlos Alberto Torres, Distinguished Professor, Director, Paulo Freire Institute, UCLA,
UNESCO Chair on Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education
“Translating Global Policy into Local Reality: Key Competencies-Based Education Reform in China (Routledge, 2025) by Li Deng, makes a significant, original and empirically grounded, contribution to the theoretical literature on education policy transfer, to research on competency based education and to the broad field of comparative and international education. The extensive work, carried out over a six year period, is impressive for the ways in which it bridges theory, policy and practice, revealing a genuine commitment to understanding the complex, multi-level, realities of educational reform in China and beyond. A wide range of readers worldwide, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners, will find this accessible and well written book helpful in times when engagement with ‘global education policies’ demands increasingly critical attention.”
Professor Michael Crossley, Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE), University of Bristol, UK
“This book presents a sophisticated account of how competency-based education reform “traveled” to and within China, adopting “Chinese characteristics.” Professor Li Deng, an internationally renowned expert in policy transfer research, explains complex theories in an accessible manner and illustrates them with compelling examples of how the global curriculum reform was adapted at the central, provincial, and school levels. I highly recommend it not only for scholars and university students but also for policymakers and practitioners.”
Gita Steiner-Khamsi, William H. Kilpatrick Professor of Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York & Honorary UNESCO Chair, Geneva Graduate Institute
