Globalization has become one of the most recurrent concepts in social and political sciences. More often than not, however, the concept is handled without much of a properly articulated theory capable of explaining its historical origin and expansion. For education researchers attempting to elucidate how global changes and processes affect their field of study, this situation is problematic. The Oxford Handbook on Education and Globalization brings together in a unique way leading authors in social theory and in political science and reflects on how these two distinct disciplinary approaches deal with the relation between globalization and education. Part I develops a firmer and tighter dialogue between social theory, long concerned with theories of globalization, and education research. It presents, discusses, and compares three major attempts to theorize the process of globalization and its relation to education: the neo-institutionalist theorization of world culture, the materialist and domination perspectives, and Luhmann's theory of world society.

Part II analyses the political and institutional factors that shape the adoption of global reforms at the national and local level of governance, emphasizing the role of different contexts in shaping policy outcomes. It engages with the existing debates of globalization mainly in the field of public policy and comparative politics and explores the social, political, and economic implications of globalization for national systems of education, their organizations, and institutions.