A comparative analysis of national media responses to the OECD Survey of Adult Skills: policy making from the global to the local?

Abstract

Environments across 24 countries. However, the translation of any OECD agenda into national policies is mediated by many actors including the media. This paper examines and compares how national media of Japan, England and France reported on the PIAAC results of their countries, and the extent to which these reports mirror key messages from the OECD's Country Notes. It begins to trace how the OECD PIAAC agendas materialise into national policies. Although their role in this initial period was limited, we argue the roles of the media together with other policy actors must be monitored as they interact to shape possibilities for sustainable adult education policies.

How International Large-Scale Skills Assessments engage with national actors: mobilising networks through policy, media and public knowledge

“…The degree to which this programme has succeeded in mobilising key national players makes AHELO an interesting case because it encountered considerable institutional resistance unlike the more popular, media-led, global university rankings that are now a significant factor in decision-making among university management in many countries (see O'Connell, 2015; Shore & Wright, 2015;Stack, 2016). A similar contrast can be seen between PISA which seems to go from strength to strength despite critiques of its validity (Meyer & Benavot, 2013), and the more recent assessment of adult skills (PIAAC) which has attracted comparatively little attention so far from either the media or national policy communities (see Clair, 2016;Cort & Larson, 2015;Yasukawa, Hamilton, and Evans (2016)). While ILSAs may become more visible and accepted in the media and public discourse over time as Mons, Pons, Van Zanten and Pouille (2009) found in their coverage of PISA in France, the picture emerging from these studies is of a graduated response that suggests a complex network of influences at play.…”

“…Several have found that reports of the ILSA results closely follow press releases and other guidance from testing agencies with little critical engagement from journalists (e.g. Pons, 2011;Stack, 2006;Yasukawa et al, 2016). Debate focuses around policy options rather than challenging the validity of the findings themselves and is framed by national contexts (Baroutsis & Lingard, 2017).…”

Mathematics Education in the News: Introduction

“…While it is impossible to untangle these interactions, it seems clear that the publication of PISA findings has on some occasions led to dramatic policy changes, and that these changes are at least in part driven by public reporting. One study referred to this effect as PISA shock (Pons 2012; see also Yasukawa et al 2017). Third, news reporting is political, not in the sense that it necessarily promotes a particular political agenda (although it might), but rather that it reflects and influences current political debates and framings.…”

“…As such, media coverage tends to oversimplify the complexity of teaching and learning mathematics, seemingly reducing these endeavours to naïve, dichotomous discourses such as 'back to basics' vs. 'discovery learning'. It also tends to dramatise the narrative, often in terms of 'us' and 'them', success and failure, crises and solutions (Appelbaum 1995;Yasukawa et al 2017). In this special issue, we contribute to this literature by collecting five papers that examine different aspects of the relationship between news media and mathematics education.…”

Review of The global education race: Taking the measure of PISA and international testing

“…Although the OECD claims less than 1% of their results focus on league tables, national ranking is often the most emphasized, and sometimes only, result included in the media. This situation is due in part to the needs of the media, which relies on producing simple, newsworthy material that is easily understood by the reader (Yasukawa et al, 2017). This book addresses the tension between the OECD communication of massive amounts of seemingly complex results and the requirements of the media, and commends the OECD for making substantial efforts to inform journalists of results, provide journalists with training to correctly interpret results, and engage with the media across multiple channelscoordinated pre-launch events, interviews, and social media campaigns.…”