The role of the OECD in the development of global policies for migrant education

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the results of a document analysis study examining the policies, trends, and conceptions developed by the OECD in the last 15 years regarding the development and mainstreaming of globalised policies of migrant education. From the process of the analysis, three thematic categories emerged: (i) Socio-economic aspects of education: International testing and the performance gap; (ii) OECD’s recommendations on Migrant Education; and (iii) Influence mechanisms: Standardisation, benchmarking, and dissemination of suggestions. Findings are discussed in the light of the concepts of neoliberalism, standardisation and soft governance. It is argued that, despite the philology pertaining the promotion of neoliberalism and standardisation through the OECD’s policy suggestions, OECD’s soft governance champions for alternative models, philosophies and practices that may challenge dominant modus operandi towards more just educational policies for migrants.

KEYWORDS:

• OECD
• globalisation
• global policies
• migrant education
• culture of performativity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christina Hajisoteriou

Dr. Christina Hajisoteriou is an Associate Professor of Intercultural Education at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. She was awarded her Ph.D. and MPhil in Education by the University of Cambridge and her first-class honours BA in Primary Education by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Dr. Hajisoteriou has been pursuing and maintaining an interdisciplinary active research agenda in the fields of Inclusion and Intercultural Education. She has published or edited 7 books and more than 50 articles and chapters in international peer-reviewed and highly-ranked journals and edited books. In 2016, Palgrave-Macmillan published her book with Professor Angelides entitled ‘The Globalisation of Intercultural Education: The Politics of Macro-Micro Integration’. Her latest book with Professor Angelides was published in 2018 by Diadrasi Publishers and is entitled ‘Europeanisation and intercultural education: From the supranational to the school level’.

Lefkios Neophytou

Dr. Lefkios Neophytou is an Education Officer at the Cyprus Agency of Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education (CYQAA), managing HEIs' applications for programmatic, departmental, and institutional evaluations. He attended undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Cyprus (B.A. in Educational Sciences, 1999; M.A. in Educational Administration and Curriculum Development, 2004; Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, 2009). He worked as a faculty member in various higher education institutions such as the University of Cyprus, the Cyprus International Institute of Management, the Open University of Cyprus, and the University of Nicosia. He has also worked as an officer at the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute and the Office of the Commissioner for Children's Rights. Further to his duties at CYQAA, he is a board member in academic/research organisations and he has participated in various ad hoc scientific committees in Cyprus [i.e Committee for the development of tests for the selection of pre-primary, primary and secondary teachers for employment in public schools in the Republic of Cyprus, Committee for the development of Attainment Targets/Indicators for the curriculum of Environmental Education/Education for Sustainable Development, Committee for the development of the strategic plan for student evaluation in elementary schools]. He is actively involved in research projects funded by the EU or the government of Cyprus. His recent research interests focus on effective differentiated instruction examining various factors pertaining to its success such as instructional leadership, curriculum development, and teacher training/professional development. He has over 100 scientific publications published in peer-reviewed journals, edited books, and conference proceedings.