10: “Global” as co-construction: a sociomaterial analysis of policy movement

Publication Date:
30 Jul 2024
Pages:
232–252
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447368045.ch010
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This chapter illustrates the application of actor-network theory (ANT) to the study of policy movement through the case of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which has significantly influenced language learning, teaching and assessment in Europe and beyond. We call into question the binary vision of global/local by showing how the CEFR was co-constructed by multiple actors and how actors’ identities shifted and were made through the transfer of the CEFR. We also examine how multiple ontologies of the CEFR – as a technical standard enabling test score alignment and as an ideology of plurilingualism promoting cultural and linguistic diversity – were performed in practices of different actors, which first strengthened and then undermined a Japanese reform project oriented to the CEFR. We conclude the chapter with a discussion on how ANT facilitates the development of policy movement research by moving beyond the convergence/divergence debate and encouraging researchers to explore relationality and heterogeneity in the so-called “global” education policies.

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