The article presents two key concepts of sociological systems theory – externalisation and structural coupling – and applies them to explain (a) the exponential growth of international large-scale student assessments and (b) the rise of ‘policy-relevant’ educational research. The author concludes with a comparison between key concepts used in systems theory and those used in comparative policy studies. She identifies resemblances with concepts of pathways in historical institutionalism, the multiple-streams approach and the notion of punctuated equilibrium advanced in the advocacy coalition framework.

中文翻译：

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外部化与结构耦合：在比较政策研究中的应用

本文介绍了社会学系统理论的两个关键概念-外部化和结构耦合-并将其用于解释（a）国际大规模学生评估的指数增长和（b）“与政策相关”的教育研究的兴起。作者最后对系统理论中使用的关键概念和比较政策研究中使用的关键概念进行了比较。她指出了与历史制度主义中的路径概念，多流方法和倡导联盟框架中提出的“标点符号均衡”概念相似的地方。