The PISA high performing systems for tomorrow framework: a decolonial reading of the OECD's future-oriented education for human flourishing

Purpose This article critically examines the OECD's High Performing Systems for Tomorrow (HPST) initiative, focusing on how non-Western intellectual traditions – Ubuntu, Confucianism and Buddhism – are referenced in its conceptualisation of education for human flourishing. It investigates the depth of engagement with these traditions through a decolonial conceptual lens. Design/methodology/approach In this study, we employ qualitative content analysis of publicly available OECD documents and webinars. Our analysis is guided by and engages with decolonial scholarship, particularly Moosavi's (2020) proposals to prevent “decolonisation without decolonising”. Findings The findings show that, while the OECD gestures towards epistemic diversity, non-Western traditions are often superficially incorporated and subordinated to dominant Western frameworks. As the initiative moves from a preparatory phase to a more operationally oriented one, such references intermittently recede and later reappear, but without substantive development or influence on the underlying onto-epistemological framework. Instead, they are selectively incorporated into a pre-existing policy agenda structured by measurement, standardisation and global comparison, hence reinforcing existing epistemic hierarchies and marginalising non-Western perspectives. Originality/value This study offers a critical insight into the OECD's flourishing agenda, demonstrating that epistemic inclusion is enacted largely in rhetorical terms, without substantive engagement with non-Western traditions. It contributes to critical discussions on global education governance by exposing the persistence of Western-centric frameworks in shaping educational futures and by advancing the case for more meaningful forms of epistemic pluralism.