This research studies knowledge production and circulation with the analysis of Finnish education export to Brazil. Finland’s success in PISA legitimized the Finnish education system, which has since then become a global benchmark. Many countries and education organizations, particularly from the Global South, are willing to learn (and buy) such knowledge as a projection to change their own education systems (Waldow & Steiner-Khamsi, 2019). The large external demand associated with economic drivers led Finland to develop a unique education export industry, constituted by new stakeholders and networks with various agendas and interests that ultimately influence policymaking (Rönnberg & Candido, 2023; Candido & Brunila, forthcoming). 

The paper offers a decolonial approach to question the taken-for-granted notions of “global” and “knowledge” from the perspective of the “politics of emotions” and the “politics of stranger making” (Ahmed, 2000, 2014), as well as upon the reflection on the “stray dog complex” (Tiburi, 2021; Souza, 2015) associated to social-historical developments in different contexts. It, thus, provides elements to deconstruct self-evident knowledge production and circulation and problematize the naturalization of “global”.

I investigate discursive practices of Finnish education export/import, highlighting the contextuality and relationality of policy flows from Finland to Brazil. Brazil has been importing education from Finland for over ten years, being an avid market for innovation and differentiation due to its unequal public-private education system divide. Relying on interview data with Finnish policymakers and exporters, and Brazilian importers (n=29), I explore the imperatives and contradictions associated with the legitimization of Finnish knowledge and its circulation globally, centering in the case of Brazil.

The preliminary findings show some degree of decontextualization in Finnish education export along with a neocolonial approach in global education governance carried on and embedded in education export. The context of action seems to be deemed secondary (or irrelevant) to exporting education, and almost fictional (and picturesque) on the import side. The “context” is rather relative than relational, whereas otherness and Finnish exceptionalism play a relevant role in the education export/import dynamics. Contextualizing “knowledge” would not only unveil the taken-for-granted form(s) and origin(s) of knowledge but also question power and hegemony in a world still rooted in colonial premises. This paper contributes to current discussions in education politics and sociology scholarship as the mechanisms and epistemologies of knowledge production and circulation affect the nature of that knowledge itself and the direction(s) and agenda(s) of global education governance.

Ahmed, S. (2014) The Cultural Politics of Emotions. Edinburgh University Press. Ahmed, S. (2000) Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality. London: Routledge. Candido, H. H. D.; Brunila, K. (forthcoming) Finnish Education Export as Part of Precision Education Governance. Rönnberg, L.; Candido, H. H. D. (2023) When Nordic education myths meet economic realities: The “Nordic model” in education export in Finland and Sweden. Nordic Studies in Education, 43(2), 145–163. Souza, J. J. F. de (2015) A tolice da inteligência brasileira. São Paulo: LeYa. Tiburi, M. (2021) Complexo de vira-lata: Análise da humilhação brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. Waldow, F.; Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2019) Understanding PISA’s Attractiveness: Critical Analyses in Comparative Policy Studies. Bloomsbury.