There have been a number of changes in recent decades at the international education agora. This is especially evident in the production, dissemination and use of educational data and knowledge. An extension and manifestation of the agora in the public and private sectors can be identified, as well as an increase in different kind of actors and activities. Consequently, the interaction between research, policymaking and educational practice has been redesigned. Furthermore, new relations have emerged with the establishment of broker agencies, further impacting the reformulation of the interaction and the knowledge that is produced and disseminated. As a case we use Sweden and the establishment of the Swedish Institute for Educational Research (SIER), a government agency aiming to provide professionals in educational practices with a firm scientific basis to improve student learning outcomes. In order to promote this, SIER has two expressed goals: to compile the best available knowledge and to distribute funding for practice-centred research. The study focuses on the epistemological and sociopolitical effects of the reviews of educational research conducted by the agency. Data from websites, documents and interviews is employed and framed by actor network theory. The findings are discussed in relation to both assignments; the production of reviews and the funding of practice relevant research projects. Additionally, we contrast and problematize the analyses in relation to research on other broker agencies, especially those in the Nordic countries. Overall, we develop knowledge about the tensions between the formalization and standardization of knowledge compilations and professional judgement. Ultimately, questions are raised about the consequences of broker agencies as whiz-kids at the education agora.
