ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use and effects of international references as a source of evidence in legitimating national educational reforms, with special attention given to the 2015/2018 Swedish school reform. The discussions draw on empirical findings from bibliometric analyses of references in the white and green papers that made up the official knowledge underpinning the reform. The results show that externalization has become a natural part of educational policymaking in Sweden. However, not all international references lend an equal amount of legitimacy to it. While Nordic references were significantly absent in the 2015/2018 Swedish school reform, the OECD dominated as the international reference par excellence. The OECD had a profound influence over every step of the formal policy process, from policy formulation and implementation to evaluation, positioning it as a co-producer of domestic policy rather than an external point of reference. Against the backdrop of a national PISA shock due to weak performances, the OECD provided uncertain Swedish politicians with statistical evidence and offered them a seemingly neutral spot from which they could make impartial decisions. This renunciation of history, culture, and ideology as legitimate political resources in favor of decontextualized and abstract knowledge as advocated by the OECD will be discussed as a problematic development fostering scientific monolingualism.
