Seminar "OECD in Finnish education policy" 27 September 2006 Johanna Kallo OECD s knowledge-based regime: aspects on dissemination and influence The presentation draws from dissertation work contributing to the research project OECD Education Policies: Three National Cases at the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE) at Turku University 2002-2005. The objective of the project was to study the change of emphasis in OECD education policy from the 1950s to today and the influence of the OECD on the education policies of different nation states. The first part of the presentation analyses the OECD as an organisation from the perpective of regime theory. According to this approach, the OECD can be conceived as an epistemic community, which maintains one kind of knowledge-based regime. The central tool of the OECD s regime formation is knowledge: decision-makers demand high quality information and those who can supply that information can exert considerable influence on policy. Further, the epistemic communities do not generate truth, they rather provide consensual knowledge. The main effect mechanism of the OECD is dissemination, which means that the OECD works mainly through agendasetting. Agenda-setting can be understood as a strategy with which the OECD demonstrates the probable direction of future politics to it s member states. The second part of the presentation introduces current views on how to research the effects of ideas on policies. There is an ongoing methodological debate around the analysis of the effects of ideas on policies. The difficulty of this ideational analysis occurs when ideas have not caused evident change in the national system but effected the system implicitly or over a long period of time. Finally, the presentation provides aspects on how the OECD has influenced education policy in three nation states: United Kingdom, Finland and China. Expert interviews indicate that the degree of influence of the OECD has been higher on Finland than on the UK. The OECD has for the most part made approving comments about domestic policies of the UK. Several interviews brought up the fact that it has been not always clear who influences whom (the OECD influences the UK, or the other way around). Concerning Finland, four types of responses to OECD reviews will be presented. OECD reviews on the Chinese education system have had little effect so far. However, there is some evidence that aspects on the OECD Review on financing and quality assurance reforms in higher education have been incorporated into the national legislative work.
OECD s knowledge-based regime: aspects on dissemination and influence Johanna Kallo CELE, Department of Education University of Turku, Finland
OECD s knowledge-based regime: aspects on dissemination and influence Research project: OECD Education Policies and Three National Cases: Longitudinal and Comparative Study on Finland, UK and China Presentation: 1. Knowledge-based regime: - OECD as an epistemic community - Aspects on dissemination 2. Some aspects on influence of the OECD on education policies in three countries
Knowledge-based regimes in education Regimes: Principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures Knowledge-based regime approach: Knowledge is a central tool for regime formation; Decision-makers demand high quality information those who can supply that information can exert considerable influence on policy (Hasenclever et. al 2002) Epistemic Communities: Networks of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain OECD could be seen as one type of epistemic community
Dissemination as OECD s effect mechanism Characteristic Process Dale (1999) Persuasion/ Agenda setting Findings Peer pressure Soft / direct agenda setting Explicitness of process Explicit Public scrutiny and exposure Implicit
Implicitness in OECD processes: education policy review as an example Stage of process: 1. Agreement on the need for the study 2. Background report prepared by the country 3. Visit of the review team, which prepares a draft report 4. Confrontation meeting at the OECD Education Committee 5. Producing the final report 6. Distribution of the report Influential factors: The OECD needs to adjust it's ideas to national political circumstances and trends The OECD needs to rely on the data provided by the national governments It s review teams have predetermined mandates The national governments attempt to divert the attention of the review teams Moral dimension in OECD education policies It s end-products are used by national governments for political purposes
Moral dimension in OECD education policies If you look at the OECD as a whole, how the organisation works, it is an inter-governmental body, which moves by peer review, countries looking at one an others work and commenting on that and it can be quite strong normative in what is the current view of what is the right thing to do. And you don t need hard law to do that, we have a soft law as we call it, guidelines, like guidelines on multinational enterprises. And we are to do it ourselves in education actually for the first time. Interview with the OECD Secretariat
Some aspects on the influence of the OECD on UK, Finland and China (1) Research method: - Analysing the effects of ideas on policies (Yee 1996; Arminggeon & Beyeler 2004) - Debated research area United Kingdom: - Experts Interviews: OECD has had little influence - Manning (2004): The OECD has made approving comments about the UK domestic policies - British influence on OECD programmes significant
Some aspects on the influence of the OECD on UK, Finland and China (2) Finland: Four types of effects 1. Longitudinal and implicit effect 2. Legitimative effect 3. Legislative effect 4. Nonacceptance P. R. China: - Thematic review of the first years of tertiary education (OECD 2001), Review of financing and quality assurance reforms in higher education in the Republic of China (OECD 2003). - Effect of the OECD reviews on the Chinese educational policies low degree so far