“The evidence therefore indicates that the provinces have defied the odds and found a way to develop and maintain similar policy activities and fashion a de facto pan-Canadian policy framework for elementary and secondary education without the direct intervention of the federal government.”

Canada is the only OECD country without a national department of education. It might be reasonable, therefore, to expect it to have a highly fragmented system, with each province pursuing a unique educational strategy. In reality, however, there is a large amount of standardization between provinces, in terms of financing, curriculum, and assessment.

Whether left or right, all of us find silver bullets appealing: we confront problems or challenges in the world, and we look for the one thing that can solve it all. Of course, most silver bullets seem to corrode when exposed to sunlight, but one that has mostly kept its appeal is education: teach people to be good citizens, to act morally, to be responsible, and a whole lot of problems disappear.

I’m not convinced it’s that easy, but it still means understanding education has a certain appeal. Unfortunately, though I think Learning to School might appeal to specialists, it’s heavy for a general reader: it can read like a phd thesis at times. Her central finding is that the subnational governments do cooperate often without federal intervention, and that learning and cooperate can lead to significant policy similarity – an important finding, but honestly exactly what I would have expected. I had hoped to have an analysis of the effectiveness of those policies, but the book instead focuses on how they evolved. If you want to understand how policies, particularly those about education, can evolve in a federal state, the book is comprehensive: if you want to learn about education, I think there are better choices.