The reproduction of 'best practice': Following Escuela Nueva to the Philippines and Vietnam

Escuela Nueva is a renowned educational innovation from Colombia that to date has been successfully transferred to 14 countries around the world. In this paper, I follow this 'traveling' policy and examine the local enactment of Escuela Nueva in two of these countries, the Philippines and Vietnam. This study reveals the various ways through which this policy model has been reframed and mediated at different stages of policy-making and local enactment. Despite local mediation, however, each attempt to transfer Escuela Nueva still contributes to the reproduction of Escuela Nueva as a universally-applicable 'best practice.'