Fragile utopias and dystopias? Governing the future(s) in the OECD youth education policies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The OECD has become a notable predictor of the future needs of society and education. In youth education, the OECD spearheads global strategies, initiatives and recommendations about the curriculum and goals for education. By evoking the sense of ‘crisis’ in ‘traditional education’ the OECD functions as a central node of precision education governance, in which so-called best practices of precise, flexible and highly individualised and personalised youth education are disseminated throughout its member states. In the most recent OECD youth strategies and education policy initiatives, we show how the present youth education is governed through evoking various future(s) of youth education. By analysing these predictions and visions discursively, we argue that the future of youth education is approached from both utopian and dystopian predictions by the OECD, and this works as a premise for arranging present and future youth education in a highly targeted and individualised manner. We argue, that the future visions drawn up by the OECD are an example of precision education governance, where the future education is hyper-individualised, arranged by co-operation of public and private sector, and where the goals and contents of education follow global recommendations and ‘best practices’.