The OECD's new discourse of curriculum reform: student agency, competency, colonization, and translation.

The article examines the expanding global governance role of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in education, focusing on its shift from evaluation through the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to curriculum reform via the Education 2030 project and its Learning Compass 2030 framework. It highlights the OECD’s recent “humanistic turn,” emphasizing terms like well-being, inclusiveness, and student agency, while critically analyzing how this new discourse may subtly shape educational thought and policy worldwide, raising concerns about a form of curriculum colonization. The article also explores the complexities of translating OECD concepts such as “student agency” and “competency” in South Korea, illustrating how local interpretations can lead to hybridization that may reinforce rather than resist global educational norms. Finally, it argues for a decolonizing approach to curriculum reform that critically interrogates the OECD’s underlying assumptions and advocates for alternative conceptions of student subjectivity and knowledge beyond prevailing neoliberal and performative frameworks.