ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of extrapolated imperial nationalisms in global education policy formation by investigating the positions taken up by two reference societies – the US and the Scandinavian states – in the development of selected policy instruments – the development of comparative indicators and the development of evidence-based policy research – in the OECD arena. The aim of the chapter is to transcend the traditional division between local, regional, national and global contexts and bring them into one analytical lens to tease out the imperial energy that frames and shapes globalization and national education systems. Connecting with the theme of the World Yearbook, the chapter adds to our understanding of the complexity of global education policy formation by historically exploring the ways in which national agendas and their extrapolated nationalisms have been embedded in, reproduced and promoted via global and international education agendas. The chapter demonstrates that imperially extrapolated nationalisms cut across global arenas – practically, discursively and ideologically – and that these nationalisms generate meaning, orientation and direction for the formation of policy instruments with a global reach.
