The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's "Starting Strong" Quality Toolbox: A Pedagogic Device of Governance

• In Event: Whose in Charge? Peripheral Governance in Education Policy Making

Abstract

The urge for quality assurance and efficiency in ECEC contributes to the dominance of ideas pushing towards a shift from bureaucratic to market mechanisms. Since standardization has become prominent, the OECD has been established as a global promoter of best practices and quality standards within nation-states and their education institutions. Our analysis of the OECD’s “Starting Strong III” toolbox illustrates its role in defining, promoting and establishing the dominant discourse of “good quality”, thereby becoming an arbiter of quality in ECEC. Drawing on data from interviews with those responsible for the Greek municipal ECEC, this paper unpacks the way the Greek economic crisis and the OECD’s governance mechanisms influence the recontextualization of the notion of quality in ECEC.

Authors

• Panagiotis Kalogerakis, University of the Peloponnese

• Anna Tsatsaroni, University of the Peloponnese