The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has strongly influenced European education policy and the entire global neo-liberally toned discourse that nowadays prevails in the implementation of national education policy and educational reforms. The educational policy governance of the OECD is based on overall and supranational information management -the instruments of which in practice are published analyses, statistics and indicator publications, as well as country and thematic reviews. This article presents, first, four phases in the history of the OECD educational policy based strictly on an analysis of documentary material. These phases provide a context for the analyses of the connections of the OECD and Finnish education policies in which the country and thematic reviews of Finland are used as empirical material. Finland has, especially in recent years, attained a status of a model pupil in implementing the educational policy recommendations of the OECD. Thus, several connections between the OECD recommendations and the development of education policy in Finland can be found in the material. In this study Finland has a role of an example of the field of activity of supranational actors and the connections and influences between the OECD and Finland should not be considered unique. Similar rapprochement of politics and thinning out of the independent authority of nation-states can even be seen on a larger scale.Finland has a record of heeding the advice of past OECD education reviews. This review seems likely to continue that pattern, helping to shape the future growth of a dynamic new education sector. (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2003a) Finland is becoming famous as the number one implementer of the education policy of the OECD. Is this really true? During its 30-year membership of the OECD, has Finland grown into such an enthusiastic model member of the
The Bologna Process (BP), which created the European Higher Education Area, has had a profound impact on educational systems in Europe and beyond, as far as Cameroon. Through thematic analysis of interviews and text documents, this article examines the adoption of BP ideas in Cameroon with a focus on the transfer and local reception to the adoption. This article shows that the adoption in Cameroon is found to continue a process that began with the adoption of the BP at the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) by the CEMAC heads of state, leading to its subsequent imposition on universities in Cameroon. The present findings show that, although imposed on the universities, the adoption of the BP found some support in Cameroon because of its potential to resolve the country’s higher education challenges. However, because of Cameroon’s dual French and Anglo-Saxon education system, some interviewees expressed scepticism about the adopted approaches, primarily because they appeared French driven. The article highlights some of the complexities and tensions associated with introducing a borrowed model to a dual system of education such as that in Cameroon.
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