Globalization and Localization in the Shaping of the Danish Public Education System: Recontextualization Processes in Four Historical Educational Reforms

Using the lens of Critical Discourse Analysis in combination with the concepts of ‘recontextualiza-tion’ and ‘reassembly’, this chapter analyses the role and significance of OECD-driven and OECD-adopted discourses in the preparatory work of the major reforms of the Danish public education system of 1975, 1993, 2006, and 2014. The chapter thus maps the main political discourses asso-ciated with the selected educational reforms and determines the extent to which OECD-driven and OECD-adopted discourses were recontextualized and reassembled in the reform processes. From this analytical platform, the chapter discusses which cultural-hegemonic values travelled to Denmark and to what extent they were implemented in the cultural ideals of the Danish public education system. The chapter draws on archival sources from the Danish National Archives and the OECD Archives in Paris as well as interviews with high-level officials. The chapter adds to our understanding of how globalization and localization processes play out in practice over a period of 45 years.