The OECD is at its origin a regional organization created in December 1961, which gives continuity in a qualitatively different historical context to the mission of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). Each OECD member state, in addition to other economic objectives, should "ensure the scientific and technological development of their capabilities as well as encourage research and provide training professional", maintaining the tradition of economic cooperation undertaken by the OEEC.

Despite being considered as an "eminence grise" in the context of industrialized countries, education only reached prominence within the OECD during the 1990s. Under the principle of lifelong learning for all, studies, reports, technologies (such as PISA, for instance) and guidelines were produced to support political decisions on formal education (from preschool to higher education), types of non-formal education, vocational training, and adult education, among others. The collection of documents produced by the OECD, with a strong statistical basis (see, for instance, the "Reviews of national policies for education" series since the 1980s, the "Education at a glance" series since 1992, the PISA publications since 2000), is equal to the amount of knowledge and publications produced by UNESCO. In order to fulfill one of the purposes of its Board of Education ("to assist members and partners in achieving high quality lifelong learning, contributing to personal development, sustainable development and social cohesion"), the OECD has become one of the most significant players in shaping the national agendas of educational policies and in the comparison of their results worldwide. In other words, the OECD is concerned with how government policies shape the education sector and with identifying the best strategies and practices for enhancing education systems.

The first large study involving the Portuguese education system that was developed by the OECD was proposed by Portugal still within the framework of the OEEC (1960) and resulted in a comparative study involving more than five Mediterranean countries (OECD, 1965). After this study, it should be noted that in a first approach to the body of literature dedicated to the Portuguese education system in the OECD's reports and publications, we can count more than 300 references, many of them cross-checked with other socio-economic studies and indicators.

This paper is rooted in theoretical and methodological settings that have sought to build an intersection between comparative education and history of education. This socio-historical approach has sought to restructure the long-established tradition of comparison in order to provide it with a deeper historical density.

This paper aims to relocate the focus on educational policies adopted in Portugal (for instance: the increase of compulsory schooling to six years in 1964, nine years in 1986, and 12 years in 2009; programmes to build new schools or remodel existing ones from the 1960s to the 2010s; the national programmes to improve the students’ skills and their relation to the results of the various PISA editions; the reorientation of the goals of higher education within the Bologna Process) to a transnational level through the cognitive/evaluative framework that has been granted by the OECD over the last fifty years.

Barroso, J.; Afonso, N. (orgs) (2011), Políticas educativas, mobilização de conhecimento e modos de regulação. V. N. Gaia: Fund. Manuel Leão. Carvalho, Luís M. (Org), (2011), O espelho do perito. Inquéritos internacionais, conhecimento e política em educação – o caso do PISA. V. N. Gaia: Fundação Manuel Leão. CNE (Conselho Nacional de Educação), Impacto das avaliações internacionais nos sistemas educativos. Lisboa: CNE, 2010. Correia, Luís Grosso (2011), “The right kind of education for the right individual”: the comparative education studies according to the Educational Yearbook of the Teachers College (1924-1944), History of Education, Vol. 40, nº 5, p. 577-598. Nóvoa, António, (1995), “Modèles d’analyse en éducation comparée: le champ et la carte”, Les Sciences de l’Éducation pour l’Ère Nouvelle, nº 2-3. Nóvoa, A.; Lawn, M. (2002), Fabricating Europe. The formation of na education space. Dordrecht: Kluver. OECD (1965), The Regional Mediterranean Project, 8 vols. Paulston, Rolland G. (1999, “Mapping comparative education after postmodernity”, Comparative Education Review, vol. 43, nº 4, p. 438-463. Stoer,S. et al. (orgs) (2001), Transnacionalização da educação: da crise da educação à educação da crise. Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Teodoro, António (2001), A construção política da educação. Estado, mudança social e políticas educativas no Portugal contemporâneo. Porto: Afrontamento. Woodward, Richard (2009), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). London and NY: Routledge.