Vera G. Centeno

Dr. Vera Gorodski Centeno is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University.

Her research focuses on the global–local reciprocity in education policy and practice, with particular attention to global education governance, international organizations, and the entanglements of the global–local nexus in educational contexts.

Vera examined agenda-setting and knowledge production within the OECD, exploring the circulation of knowledge between the global and the local in her doctoral dissertation (Humboldt University of Berlin, Dr. phil., 2014). This work is presented in her book The OECD’s Educational Agendas: Framed from Above, Fed from Below, Determined in Interaction. A Study on the Recurrent Education Agenda (Centeno 2017), among others (e.g. Centeno 2019).

In her post-doctoral research, Vera investigated the intersection between international large-scale assessments and education quality policies and practices in Brazil. She analysed how educational discourses interconnect different sites, and how educational practices and policies are defined by local meanings, interpretations and possibilities, notwithstanding global frameworks (BCR consortium project). Important findings are presented in articles (e.g. Centeno et al. 2017) and open-access chapters (e.g. Suominen, Centeno et al. 2018; Piattoeva, Centeno et al 2018).

Theoretically, Vera has particularly contributed to debates on comparative education (e.g., Kauko, Centeno, Piattoeva et al. 2018), the ontology of international organizations (e.g., Centeno, 2021) and institutional interplay (Centeno, 2025). See Vera G. Centeno’s publication list here.

Currently, Vera leads the Finnish team in an international comparative project on school-based messages about climate change, which received the GENE/EERA 2021 award (project page). Her research examines how responsibility for sustainable development crystallizes as a societal norm (Centeno et al., submitted; Centeno, Ress & Sorsa, submitted). She is also a Visiting Professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), where she collaborates with the multi-stakeholder Center for Studies in the Implementation of Educational Policies, focusing on education policy implementation in São Paulo, Brazil.

At the Faculty of Education and Culture, Vera G. Centeno teaches a UniPID virtual course designed to bring together students from diverse geographical and disciplinary backgrounds to reflect on the global–local nexus in public policies and development cooperation from an international perspective.

Highlighted publications

Centeno, V. G. (2025). Local Institutional Interplay: IDB, OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF and WB Linkages in the Context of Brazilian Education sector. In Santos, Pekkola & Kontio (Eds), International Organisations Inside Out. Professional, Organisational and Contextual Realities of Global Education Development (pp. 119-142). Brill.

Paananen, M., Centeno, V. G., Fjällström, S., Bhattarai, D. P., Jovanović, G., Madureira Ferreira, J., Millei, Z., Rosa Ribeiro, C., Paakkari, A., Sadat Sajjadieh, N., Tholchah, M., & Varpanen, J. (2023). Imaginaries of ECEC: A comparison of policies of access in early childhood education in Brazil, Finland, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, and Serbia. Journal of Early Childhood Education Research, 12(3), 145-180. https://doi.org/10.58955/jecer.122962. Full text available.

Centeno, V. G. (2021). The OECD: actor, arena, instrument, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 19:2, 108-121, DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2021.1882958. Full text available.

Centeno, V. G. (2019). The birth of the OECD’s education policy area. In C. Ydesen (Ed.), The OECD’s Historical Rise in Education.: The Formation of a Global Governing Complex. (pp. 63-82). (Global Histories of Education). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33799-5_4. Full text available.

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. Full text available.

Kauko, J., Centeno, V. G., Piattoeva, N., Candido, H., Gurova, G., Medvedeva, A., Santos, Í., Suominen, O., & Zhou, X. (2018). Layers of reflectivity in comparative research. In J. Kauko, R. Rinne, & T. Takala (Eds.), Politics of Quality in Education : A Comparative Study of Brazil, China, and Russia (pp. 18-43). (Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203712306-2. Full text available.

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. Chapters available.

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. Full text available.

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. Full text available.

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