This article has four sections. First, the author presents a theoretical discussion of the different explanations regarding the explosion of education after World War II. She explains how the actor-network theory--a theory of knowledge and of agency--enables people to understand the formation of the education-economic growth black box. The actor-network theory allows her to explain the formation of the education-economic growth network, a network in which UNESCO, the OECD, and the econometric economists of education participated. It also serves to elucidate the ways in which the collaboration of international organizations as central "allies" of the network contributed to the enhancement and diffusion of the education-economic growth black box, turning it into a component of the world education culture. Second, she presents the formation of the education-economic growth network which depicts through the evolution of the economics of education in calculable and predictable terms. She discusses the three main allies which constitutes the basis of the education-economic growth network: (1) human capital theory, (2) the residual factor, and (3) education planning. Third, she presents the critiques of the education-economic growth black box. And fourth, she discusses how the education-economic growth discourse became the basis of educational policies throughout the world--a fact that contributed to the expansion and empowerment of international organizations. Finally, in a concluding section, she discusses the utility of an analysis of international organizations as actors in furthering people's understanding of the evolution of a world education culture. (Contains 101 footnotes.)