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).

These two organisations have had rather different histories of engagement with education. The EC has had an interest in promoting a shared European culture and identity through education, but in indirect ways, with emphasis on the autonomy of national systems in relation to education, expressed in the principle of subsidiarity. More recently, in response to knowledge economy pressures, it has become more active in steering policy through the use of particular kinds of intervention, for example the use of benchmarks and indicators, that have had a considerable impact in shaping and directing policy towards the Lisbon objectives. This shift seems also to signal something of a departure from the European social project, and closer alignment with neo-liberal policy directions, as expressed, par excellence, by OECD. The OECD, on the other hand, has also had a long history of developing quality indicators in education through its Education at a Glance publications and other similar exercises. More recently, it has also assumed an even stronger role in the field, through its monitoring of education systems’ performance through such activities as the Programme for 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 – currently under development – Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) provides a specific case through which transnational policy learning between the two IOs may be scrutinised.

Thus, the enquiry will use policy texts, interviews and network analysis to:

(a) produce a typology of the main actors and ideas and the directionality of policy learning in developing PIAAC;
(b) identify specific instances of policy teaching and learning between the two IOs; and
(c) develop a preliminary perspective on the extent and significance of policy learning in transnational education governance.