This paper presents an analysis of rhetorical strategies, figures and topoi in Management by Objectives (MbO) governance and reform processes in education. MbO reforms can ideally be described as objectives of educational policies are to be set on the background of visions of the society’s future. Science should inform policy on how to reach the vision. The political leaders must shape a loyal and instrumental bureaucracy to carry the objectives through. The leaders and bureaucracy then need to scientifically test and control whether schools or teachers reach the objectives through measurements, evaluations and control regimes. In short this can be described as a political - scientific model of educational governance and reform (Trippestad 2014). This is an attractive and widespread political model for education reforms today by its simplicity and logic. But a vast amount of complex problems do in reality arise from this simple model. Using Karl Poppers The Open Society and Its Enemies as critical recourse the paper describes MbO reforms as modern versions of what Popper calls “utopian engineering”. The presentation critically addresses visions as a rational starting point of reforms. It problematize the social construction in MbO reforms marginalizing professions and mystifying leadership. Typical traits of Utopian engineering regimes are big plans, centralized governance, experimental approaches and fast implementation to outmaneuver resistance. Reforms easily come out of control through these strategies. The paper address archetypical subversive effects of this reform ideology and discuss epistemological, social and democratic implications for teachers and teacher education.

Popper, K. (1995a). The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol. 1. Plato. Routledge. Popper, K. (1995b). The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol. 2. Marx and Hegel. Routledge. Trippestad, T.A. (2011). The Rhetoric of a Reform: The construction of ‘public’, ‘management’ and the ‘new’ in Norwegian education reforms of the 1990s. Policy Futures in Education 9(5), 631-643. Trippestad, T. A. (2014). Visjonærstillingen. Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift, 6, 410-423.