Contextualisation
 This paper combines insights from the fields of educational policy and sociology, regarding
 the nature and impact of globalisation in national education policy, with empirical data from a
 particular policy-borrowing process in Argentina. Although there is extensive theoretical
 literature on the mechanisms by which globalisation trends influence national policy, few
 scholars have paid attention to the practical ways in which these global ideas shape and are
 disseminated in local contexts. This article is part of the growing body of literature that looks
 at the particular ways in which global discourses penetrate local settings.
 
 
 Abstract: This paper analyses to what extent specific educational reforms, in local
 contexts, respond to influences generally associated with the process of globalisation and
 the ways in which this might occur. More specifically, it looks at the origins and intentions
 of the Charter School policy in the Argentine province of San Luis. It aims to shed light on
 the practical ways in which global discourses penetrate local contexts. The paper begins
 by describing the context in which the charter policy took place. It then explores the
 transformations proposed by the policy and their link to global trends. The mechanisms,
 by which these international ideas were disseminated, in this particular local context, are
 then examined. To conclude, the paper suggests some explanations for the recent
 expansion of similar, educational and political, responses throughout the world.