Slow rhythms and feedback loops: patterns and moments of influence in the OECD’s education work, 1961–1979

This article provides an historical perspective on the growth of the OECD’s influence on education policy internationally through investigation of its impact on the Scottish education system between 1961, when the OECD began, and 1979, the end of the first decade of the OECD’s Education Committee. The Scottish experience is presented as an emblematic case. The OECD–Scotland relationship is examined through the theoretical lenses of ‘slow rhythms’ (long-duration policy tempos) and ‘feedback loops’ (reciprocal, recursive exchanges of influence). Two avenues of approach have been used to structure this critical historical analysis. The first avenue takes its evidence from education documents, policy and related artefacts created within the Scottish system during the focal period, seeing these as representative of the discourses at work within the local context at the time of their creation. The second avenue of approach takes its evidence from documents through the same period created by the OECD. Findings suggest that through its first two decades, the rhythm of OECD’s education agenda developed gradually and was shaped by ongoing input from member-country representatives, pointing to a more exploratory, reciprocal, and fluid dynamic between national education systems and the OECD than exists in the present era.