The aim of this article is to examine how transnational concepts within educational policies influencenational curricula in the reconceptualisation of educational policy into concrete curriculum texts.Based on a critical discourse analysis and the concepts of recontextualisation, convergenceand divergence, a third wave of European policy discourse has been identified, emphasising anincreasing interest in compulsory school and curriculum. Analyses of policies and pedagogicaltexts show a convergence between a European and a Swedish knowledge discourse concerningstandards, basic skills and a performance-based curriculum; however, there is a divergence interms of transversal skills in transnational policy documents compared to an emphasis on schoolsubjects in the Swedish curriculum. In the transnational arena, the concept of knowledge is mainlyinterpreted in terms of competencies, while in the Swedish curriculum – the Curriculum forthe Compulsory School, Preschool Class and the Leisure-Time Centre 2011 – knowledge isunderstood in more traditional terms and includes abilities within subjects