Dr. Vera Gorodski Centeno is a senior researcher at the Faculty of Education and Culture, University of Tampere.
Vera has a longstanding research interest in the global-local reciprocity in education policy and practices. Her main research interests are comparative and international education, education policy and practices.
Interested in the circulation of knowledge ‘between the global and the local’, in her doctoral dissertation, Vera concentrated on studying agenda-setting and knowledge production within the OECD (Humboldt-University of Berlin, PhD, 2014). This study and related research are presented, among others, in the book ‘The OECD’s Educational Agendas: Framed from Above, Fed from Below, Determined in Interaction. A Study on the Recurrent Education Agenda’ (Peter Lang 2017) and the article ‘The OECD: actor, arena, instrument’ (Globalisation, Societies and Education 2021).
Vera focused later on the strong association between international large-scale assessments and local education quality policies and practices. Studying the Brazilian educational scene, she was particularly interested in how educational discourses interconnect different sites, but how notwithstanding educational practices and policies are defined by local meanings, interpretations and possibilities. Important findings are presented in articles (e.g. Comparative Education (54)2) and in the book ‘Politics of Quality in Education: A Comparative Study on Brazil, China, and Russia’ (Routledge 2018).
Presently, motivated by the importance of sustainability policies, Vera is leading the Finland team in an international cross-curriculum comparison of school-based messages about human-earth relationships. This project received the GENE/EERA 2021 award. For more details, please visit the project webpage.
Highlighted publications
Vera G. Centeno (2021) The OECD: actor, arena, instrument, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 19:2, 108-121, DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2021.1882958
Centeno, V. G. (2019) The OECD and education: an historical perspective on the foundation of a global policy actor. The OECD’s Historical Rise in Education. The Formation of a Global Governing Complex (Ed. Ydesen). Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-33799-5_4
Centeno, V. G., Kauko J. & Candido, H. H. D. (2018). Quality Assurance and Evaluation through Brazilian lenses: an exploration into the validity of umbrella concepts. Comparative Education, 54:2, 132-158. DOI: 10.1080/03050068.2017.1348084
Centeno, V. G. (2017). The OECD’s Educational Agendas: Framed from Above, Fed from Below, Determined in Interaction. A Study on the Recurrent Education Agenda. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/62726
Centeno, V. (2011). Lifelong learning: a policy concept with a long past but a short history. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 30(2): 133-150. DOI: 10.1080/02601370.2010.547616
Centeno, V. (2010). Agency in Establishing a Transnational Space: Brazilian Interest in US-American Educational Assistance Programs (1956 – 1974). World Orders Revisited (Eds. Engel, U. and Middell, M.). Leipzig: Leipzig Universitätsverlag.