“Leaving No One Behind” As a New Motto for the UN System

Abstract

Educational governance has become increasingly complex due to the emergence of the post-welfare state together with specialised networks acting across nations, such as the recently formed United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Group. In this context, the global circulation of policies, priorities and lifelong learning narratives impacts national agendas through frameworks and diverse multilevel policy instruments. Adopting elements of global governance theory, this article examines the 2017 Shared Framework on Leaving No One Behind and argues that it has served as a milestone in supporting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on the national level, while contributing to mainstreaming communication and written discourses in all sectors of the educational arena since its publication. The article reflects on aspects of Portugal’s alignment to “Leaving No One Behind” (LNOB) through critical discourse analysis (CDA) of textual evidence in two interrelated national policy documents. The findings show the impact of this global policy-speak on recent Portuguese official documents.

Keywords

• educational global governance
• United Nations System
• Leaving No One Behind
• Portuguese adult education
• critical policy analysis