The current paper focuses on how the curriculum is governed by comparative knowledge. Particularly, the article identifies how this facet of governance has manifested itself within the policy space of England’s National Curriculum reforms. While international comparative logic within England’s National Curriculum could be regarded as a manifestation of a European-wide governing technology, the article suggests that the distinctiveness of ‘Europe’ is at risk of being lost to dominant global knowledge paradigms which are also an integral part of the ‘governance by comparison’ process.