For decades the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been a key organization in the shaping of globalization via its trend-setting recommendations and impact on the economically developed world. Education has long been a central focus area of the OECD and it has been described as one of the most powerful agents of transnational education governance (Grek 2014). In this respect the organization has carried immense impact in terms of its educational measurement indicators and its role in constructing a global educational policy field through governance by comparison (Grek 2009; Martens 2007; Ozga & Lingard 2007). At the same time the OECD has also functioned as a central hub for educationalists, economists and other experts and professionals moving in and out of other international organizations (IOs) and key national organizations with an agenda for the shaping of globalization in general and the global education space in particular (Lawn & Grek 2012; Lawn 2013a; Lawn 2013b; Ozga et al. 2011).

Ever since the emergence of comparative education in the late 19^th century the field of education has played a central role in the understanding of economic development and trajectory of the nation-state (Sobe & Boven 2014, Lundahl xxxx). Through the production of comparisons, ratings, and rankings education became – and remains today - a key marker for determining the relational strength of a country’s economy (Petterson 2014; Ydesen 2013). National education systems lost their ability to hide and a global educational field has gradually emerged over the last century and a half. In the era of modern globalization post 1989 education – together with economy - constitutes a central and defining cog in the workings of globalization. Education may also be viewed as the very frontline pillar and vanguard of the state and the global world order – the site where the large majority of children and families most actively meet the state and the global world order; where minds and understandings and even worldviews are formed and shaped.

It is the purpose of this research project to conduct a global historical inquiry into the impact of OECD policy initiatives and interventions in order to gain knowledge of 1) the workings of globalization; 2) the entanglements and travels of ideas, knowledge, and practices between international, national, regional and local contexts, and 3) to gain a historical bearing for the understanding of future developments in the global education field.

From these introductory observations the present research project seeks to treat the following research question:

How has the OECD informed, crafted and governed the education space of the economically developed world since its formation in 1961?

The sub-questions are:

1)    Which agents, organizations, links and interconnections implemented or shaped and mediated OECD educational policies into national policies?

2)    How were educational policy initiatives and interventions made acceptable to the different populations?

3)    To what extent were ideas, knowledge, and practices transferred, domesticated and made available for the construction of an understanding of education in alignment with OECD?

4)    To what extent can diachronic differences and similarities in OECD’s educational impact be determined and which “engines” seem to hamper and promote national policy borrowing from the OECD?

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