There has been increasing commentary about a ‘fifth freedom’ in the EU – the circulation of knowledge. While much of the analysis of this burgeoning European education space has focussed on higher education and research, national policies for compulsory schooling have also been undergoing profound transformation. There is a growing tension between pressures to adapt to current best practice, established at the European or international level, and the resilience of national education systems, especially in member states with strong national traditions and well-entrenched educational bureaucracies, such as Germany and France. Rather than focus on transnational actors, I evaluate how national policy-makers translate European ideas and international models into innovative policy bricolages, vis-à-vis the opportunities and constraints presented by domestic political institutions, policy legacies, and bureaucratic capacity. These institutional conditions can help us understand the mechanisms of paradigmatic policy change, and the importance of adapting cognitive ideas to credit-claiming behaviour.
