ABSTRACT

International organisations’ importance in education policy has been growing in recent years. They have been able to promote their role by providing data and interpreting it through international assessments and guidance, and by highlighting some countries or regions as benchmarks for global improvement, performance, and efficiency. International organisations’ output feeds policy reform arguments in national and regional contexts. We analyse debates on education policy in the Portuguese parliament with the aim of understanding the roles of external references to international organisations, their instruments, and associated countries. We understand the agenda-setting process through political, problem, and policy streams as described by the Multiple Streams Approach. Our analysis shows that external references play a key role in the three streams as extra sources of authority used by policymakers in the attempt to open new policy windows and couple the three streams, resulting in policy change.

摘要

近年来，国际组织在教育政策中的重要性不断提高。他们能够通过提供数据并通过国际评估和指导来解释数据，并通过突出某些国家或地区作为全球改进、绩效和效率的基准来提升自己的作用。国际组织的产出为国家和地区背景下的政策改革论据提供了依据。我们分析葡萄牙议会关于教育政策的辩论，目的是了解外部参考对国际组织、其文书和相关国家的作用。我们通过多流方法所描述的政治、问题和政策流来理解议程设置过程。