Reframing Quality: Transnational Policy, Standardization, and the Future of Education in the Netherlands

In an era of growing global interdependence, education systems are increasingly shaped by transnational agendas that define what counts as quality. This thesis asks: How are transnational narratives and practices of quality education, including discourses of standardization, benchmarking, economic competitiveness and whole-person development, incorporated, adapted, or resisted in the Dutch education context? Over the past 25 years, frameworks from the OECD, EU, and World Bank have advanced standardized benchmarks, which present themselves as neutral tools of comparison but privilege economic productivity and measurable outcomes. To investigate this, the study combines a documentary analysis of Dutch and international policy texts with interviews with representatives of key stakeholders in the Dutch education system. This mixed-methods approach reveals how global narratives are translated into Dutch frameworks, and how actors negotiate, resist, or reinforce these influences. Findings show that international assessments, especially the OECD’s Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), are consistently mobilized to signal crisis and justify reforms, narrowing conceptions of quality to literacy, numeracy, and “basic skills.” This has direct implications for curricula, inspection frameworks, and teacher motivation. At the same time, councils and professional bodies emphasize broader educational purposes, such as creativity, social-emotional development, and student agency, but these remain overshadowed by accountability pressures. The study concludes that while measurement tools can offer valuable insights, their dominance risks eroding pluralism. A more balanced approach is needed, one that complements quantitative benchmarks with qualitative and participatory assessments to capture the full purposes of education.