Two concurrent shifts are occurring in international education policy. One involves a policy shift away from issues of access, enrollment and completed schooling to one focusing on learning, skills acquisition and teacher quality. The second involves a narrowing of the conceptualization of quality education, with learning outcomes and skills acquisition becoming the core constructs. This article argues that both shifts are problematic as they disregard emergent insights about the contested nature of the intended and implemented curriculum—especially as viewed through textbooks and official guidelines. Context-specific knowledge about textbooks and the curriculum is crucial, if policy makers are to identify effective ways to improve the provision of quality education. The thematic articles in this issue are noteworthy since they: a) enhance our understanding of the development, revision and use of textbooks; b) examine the cultural and political dynamics of curricular processes; and c) address important research and policy concerns concerning textbooks and the curriculum. Shifting policy interest to quality education and learning outcomes The international policy community is agog over quality education. For more than two decades, policy attention has been shifting away from issues of access, enrollment and years of schooling completed to issues of learning, skills acquisition and teacher quality. This policy turn has gained steam in recent years for several reasons. First and foremost, most countries in the developing world are effectively attaining universal primary education (UPE), with net primary enrolment ratios greater than 95%, or are on track to do so in the coming years. Having reached, or about to reach, UPE, improving the ‘quality’ of primary education and reducing inequalities in post-primary education are emerging as new issues in national policy agenda. Indeed, many Latin American countries had already universalized access to primary education by the 1990s and, not surprisingly, quality issues became a centerpiece of regional policy discussions (UNESCO-OREALC 2007). Second, some studies have shown that mean learning levels on international assessments (a proxy for cognitive skill development) significantly influence national 1 This is not meant to minimize the importance of a significant number of developing countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Africa, which have a high percentage of out of school children, and which are not expected to attain UPE by 2015 (see UIS 2011).