Search results for: International organizations

Thispaper develops the idea that IOs, and particularly the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have had significant policy influence within the context of education policy development in the European education space. The article focuses on an examination of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the more recent Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in order to discuss processes of problematisation and normalisation of the notions of ‘skills’ and ‘competencies’ by the two major European IOs, the OECD and the European Commission. The article examines the ways both concepts have turned into a policy problem in need of soft governance through new data, standards and policy solutions.