Supranational Regimes and Their Consequences for Education

The influence of supranational regimes has dramatically increased in the last decades. How this influence is manifested and which consequences it has had and continues to have on education is discussed in this paper. More specifically, the paper highlights lifelong learning and the Bologna process seen as projects, the explicit aims of which starkly contrast to their effects on such vital issues as the definition of what is education and what are the goals of education. The Utopian vision of education, in which lifelong learning was originally framed, has given way to a view of education as instrumentalism and performativity. This view is exacerbated by and through the Bologna process, such as it has been orchestrated through the European Commission and national governments. The paper concludes that these projects illustrate the power and influence of supranational regimes and raises serious questions concerning the future of education.