For a long time, the image of Finland in many other countries was dominated by stereotypes typically involving among other things its wild and romantic nature and sometimes the amount of alcoholic beverages consumed by its inhabitants (Tuomi-Nikula, 1998).

This changed radically with the publication of the first round of PISA-results (OECD, 2001). Since then, references to Finland and the Finnish education system have abounded in the policy-making discourse of countries as diverse as Germany, Sweden and Japan (Waldow, 2010; Takayama, 2010).

The paper will discuss the character and functions of these references. It will argue that Finland serves as a kind of "projection screen" onto which different - sometimes even contrary - images of the "good school" are projected.

OECD. (2001). Knowledge and skills for life: First results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000. Paris: OECD. Takayama, K. (2010). Politics of externalization in reflexive times: Reinventing Japanese education reform discourses through “Finnish PISA success”. Comparative Education Review, 54(1), 51-75. Tuomi-Nikula, O. (1998). Zur Tradierung des romantisch-idealistischen Finnlandbildes in Deutschland. Jahrbuch für finnisch-deutsche Literaturbeziehungen, 30, 104-123. Waldow, F. (2010). Der Traum vom "skandinavisch schlau Werden". Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 54(4).