Bristol Conversations in Education - What can we learn about global education from historical and global policy studies of the OECD?

This event is part of the School of Education's 'Bristol Conversations in Education' seminar series. These seminars are free and open to the public.

Speaker: Professor Christian Ydesen, Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University

The OECD has been key in the development of the way global governance in education works, and, today, the OECD is widely recognized as a global authority in education because of its unique role in governance by comparison and the production of educational norms and paradigms, such as educational measurement indicators. However, while most research recognizes the enormous importance of the OECD as a global education policy shaper, little effort has been made in gaining a better understanding of the developments and events that made it possible for the OECD to assume this dominant role. More than 70 years have passed since the foundation of its predecessor, the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). The purpose of this talk is to revisit the historical events and developments that have put education on the economic agenda and which have shaped and informed the very way education is construed and enacted across the globe today.