Study title

Many scholars of education policy have drawn attention to the emergence of a global education policy agenda, driven by the need for increased competitiveness, skill development and employability and dominated by International Organisations (IOs), among which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission (EC). The EC in response to knowledge economy pressures, has recently become more active in steering policy through the use of benchmarks and indicators. The OECD has also assumed a stronger role in the field, through the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA). There is thus apparent convergence of technologies (ie tools and ways of steering systems) as well as of direction/content in the agendas of the two IOs. The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) provides a specific case through which transnational policy learning may be scrutinised. The enquiry will use policy texts, interviews and network analysis to produce a typology of the main actors and ideas and the directionality of policy learning in developing PIAAC; identify specific instances of policy teaching and learning between the two IOs; and develop a preliminary perspective on the extent and significance of policy learning in transnational education governance.