This article delves into the reactions of national institutions to various external stimuli originating from supra-national policies formulated by international organisms and other bureaucracies. The authors argue that such stimuli, when ignoring various previous arrangements developed in a given social and/or historic (national) context, may disrupt the institution's balance. In particular, they create divergence among the three pillars -normative, regulative and cultural-cognitive

The purpose of this article is to analyse and interpret the effect of the primary school teachers' trade union in Greece insofar as the formation and realisation of education policy is concerned, and, more precisely, insofar as it concerns the issue of teacher evaluation. The research material used comes from the filing and analysis of the contents of the Teachers' Forum, a periodical publication of the trade union, and from a field study on the role of school advisors within the context of teacher evaluation. What emerges as most telling from the findings is the impression that 'evaluation' is perceived by the Teachers' Union of Greece as a concept that arouses reactions and resistance in its implementation. Consequently, an interesting line of research enquiry would be how local education administrators and teachers could be encouraged to create a climate of trust and mutual commitment.

Quality in education is considered to be a central aim as far as the formation and the implementation of educational policy worldwide is concerned. The basic prerequisite for it, though, is quality culture. Collaborative networks between school advisors and primary school teachers are examined to reveal how they can affect the formation of communities of practice and then a quality culture. The technical tools of grounded theory and semi-structured interviews are used for the investigation of collaborative networks and their connection to communities of practice. School advisors and primary school teachers who worked together in forming collaborative networks displayed common characteristics such as a belief in the value of constant effort for improvement, the importance of introspection, common reading material, and a sense of trust. Individuals with shared goals and visions can form communities of practice which will then work as fashioners and multipliers of a quality culture.