The OECD Learning Compass 2030 and the future of disciplinary learning: a Bernsteinian critique

The ‘Learning Compass 2030’ was released by the OECD in 2019 as their new policy framework for the compulsory schooling sector. This framework takes the bold step of asserting that access to disciplinary knowledge is central to schooling, putting it in stark contrast to previous OECD reports which have advocated instead for more generic skills and competencies. Drawing on Basil Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogic device, this paper critiques the way the Learning Compass 2030 imagines disciplinary knowledge. It argues that while its inclusion offers an exciting possibility, the way that the Learning Compass 2030 continues to be governed by the instrumentalist logic of knowledge economy discourses prevalent in previous OECD documents means that disciplinary knowledge is constructed in a limited way. Instead of a tool which opens up new perspectives to students, the Learning Compass 2030 positions disciplinary knowledge almost exclusively as something which has an immediate and practical value in a marketised world. In taking this step, the Learning Compass denies the critical, transformative powers of disciplinary knowledge, thereby undercutting students’ access to frameworks which will allow them to reimagine and ultimately better our society.