Introduction contextualising global flows of competency-based education: polysemy, hybridity and silences

Abstract

This essay introduces the special issue on competencies or ‘twenty-first century skills’ as learning goals promoted by the OECD and other international organisations. The studies in this issue trace pathways through which competency-based approaches have been incorporated into national reforms, and explore how reform advocates, policy makers, educators, and experts have imagined ‘key competencies’ for compulsory education. Cases examine reforms in particular countries–Sweden, France, Russia, Kosovo, the United States, Uruguay, and China–as well as conceptualisations of competencies, ‘civic competencies’ and ‘global competence’ shaped by international experts. Based on these studies, this essay argues that the concept of competencies, central to the development of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), is a polysemous notion that has led to hybrid forms of discourse and policy implementation. It also highlights the significance of reform processes and specific actors in diverse settings, illuminating the complexity and contingency of competency-based reforms.