ABSTRACT
Over the course of the last few years, the belief in outcomes as an effective quality improvement and monitoring instrument has developed into a doctrine. Having attained the rank of ‘educational orthodoxy’ (Smyth & Dow, 1998, p. 291), many policy experts feverishly promote it. They view its global diffusion as ultimate proof that this particular reform strategy is effective and accelerates change in schools. Outcomes-based education (OBE) may be seen as an example of a reform epidemic that has afflicted education systems around the globe, especially at the stage of policy formation, and to a lesser extent at the stage of policy implementation. Policy formation and implementation are vastly different processes. However, the question of whether global talk about OBE has actually led to OBE-like reforms in practice will not be discussed here, as such an inquiry would require a normative interest in establishing the features of what an outcomes-based education reform should entail. The fact remains that policy experts in a wide array of countries have discursively and, more importantly, selectively borrowed OBE.
