Re-reading the OECD and education: the emergence of a global governing complex–an introduction

This article introduces the Special Issue ‘Re-reading the OECD and education: the emergence of a global governing complex’. Its distinctive contribution is related to its dual epistemological aims: to explore how different conceptual lenses and methodological approaches add to our understanding of the OECD as an intergovernmental organisation; and second, to understand the ways in which the strategic activities and priorities of the OECD have been constructed, historically and contemporarily, and the implications in terms of governance and education on a global scale. Broadly, this dual dynamic–of ‘seeing the OECD’ and ‘seeing like the OECD’–has generated the papers included in this Special Issue. Our Introduction outlines the specific foci and contributions of these papers with reference to four thematic lines of analysis in the research literature: (i) the changing capacities and positions of the OECD in global governance; (ii) the main ideas and styles of reasoning underpinning OECD governance; (iii) the formal and informal processes and workings of OECD’s policy formation; and (iv) the impact and wider implications of the OECD in education policy and practice.