An International Research Venture in Retrospect: The IEA Surveys

Husén, Torsten

doi:10.1086/446067

Cited by 55 publications

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“…The IEA was a pioneer of international large-scale assessments; it began as a network in the 1950s at the UNESCO Institute for Education and continues to be a major actor in international large-scale assessments today, responsible for, among other studies, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In contrast to the OECD's PISA, which has been well studied by outsiders, the IEA is an organisation whose history has primarily been described by insiders, that is by researchers who have been active in the organisation themselves (e.g., Husén 1979;Papanastasiou, Plomp, and Papanastasiou 2011; see also Pettersson 2015;Morgan 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

De-scandalisation and international assessments: the reception of IEA surveys in Sweden during the 1970s

Landahl

2018

Globalisation, Societies and Education

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This article is concerned with the early phase of international large-scale assessments. Drawing on media discussions before and after the release of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) surveys of 1973, the chapter discusses the relationship between international assessments, scandalisation, and descandalisation, with a specific focus on the interpretation of the comprehensive school reform in Sweden. The first section of this article deals with the early years of the 1970s, a time in which international data on education played a minimal role in educational discourse, creating space for other ways of discussing the perceived quality of schooling. The second section covers the effects of the IEA surveys released in 1973, whose positive results took Sweden by surprise, leading to what could be called a de-scandalisation. Finally, the implications of the emergence of international testing are analysed in terms of what de-scandalisation meant in this particular historical phase, and what it tells us about the nature of large-scale assessments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

De-scandalisation and international assessments: the reception of IEA surveys in Sweden during the 1970s

Landahl

2018

Globalisation, Societies and Education

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“…The original reporting of the Six Subject Survey comprised nine volumes written by several of the leading researchers in the field of education. While these volumes in many ways are excellent, it was obvious that the Six Subject Survey failed to answer the questions about determinants of educational achievement, and the causal mechanisms involved (Husén, 1979).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of International Comparative Studies on Educational Quality on the Quality of Educational Research

Gustafsson

2008

European Educational Research Journal

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Large-scale survey studies of educational achievement are becoming increasingly frequent, and they are visibly present in both educational policy debates and within the educational research community. One main aim of these studies is to provide descriptions of inputs, processes and outcomes, and another aim is to provide explanations of how different factors interrelate to produce educational outcomes. These aims are difficult to reach, which in combination with the fact that the comparative studies are typically more policy driven than theory driven, are reasons why these studies are contested on quality grounds. In this article, a set of fundamental methodological challenges related to the validity of the measurement instruments and to the possibility of making inferences about causality are identified and discussed in relation to examples of different studies. Strengths and weaknesses of different research approaches are discussed, and it is proposed that the dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative approaches should be replaced with distinctions between lowand high-level inference approaches with respect to data, generalization and explanation. It is concluded that while the international studies easily invite misuse and misinterpretation, they also offer possibilities for improving the quality of educational research, because the high-quality data generated by these studies can be taken advantage of in research on causal effects of factors in and out of educational systems.

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“…Punch cards were used to store the data that Thorndike processed at Teachers' College, Columbia University (Foshay e ta ! 1962;Husen 1979).…”

Section: The Pilot Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The IEA relied on several financial sources to maintain the production of its studies. The grants it received often had strings attached and conditions set by the granting institutions (Husen 1979). The IEA tried not to yield to the pressures and demands imposed on it by national policy makers and to maintain academic autonomy in its approach to the study of international student achievement.…”

Section: Second International Mathematics Study and Second Internatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment: unraveling a knowledge network

Morgan¹

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Direction du P atrim oine d e I'edition 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 CanadaBien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. i* i Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iii Abstract The dissertation examines the construction of an international student assessment, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), by the Organization for International Co-operation and Development (OECD). The PISA is analyzed within the context of the global architecture of education where various agents such as the OECD and other international organizations, states and communities of experts are reconstructing, reproducing and legitimizing the discourse and material practices of societal and economic progress and of official educational knowledge. The dissertation argues that the PISA is a fragile entity that is susceptible to contestation not only as it is located in a highly politicized setting, the OECD, but also because it is founded on the socially-constructed science of educational measurement. The dissertation draws on the Foucauldian concept of a power bloc formation in order to analyze the PISA's technical capacity, relations of communication and relationships of power. The analysis contributes to our understanding of how programs such as the PISA come to be constructed, how they work, how they attempt to order and shape our worlds, and how they are connected to global networks of power. It reveals that the international educational statistics that inform public policy decision-making are the result of a series of negotiated compromises made by communities of practice occupying various institutional structures within the global architecture of education. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iv Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the kind and generous support of several individuals and institutions. I would like to thank my dissertation committee, Bruce Curtis, Rianne Mahon, and Lisa Mills, for their guidance, support, optimism and valuable advice during my intellectual journey.

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An International Research Venture in Retrospect: The IEA Surveys

Cited by 55 publications

References 0 publications

De-scandalisation and international assessments: the reception of IEA surveys in Sweden during the 1970s

De-scandalisation and international assessments: the reception of IEA surveys in Sweden during the 1970s

Effects of International Comparative Studies on Educational Quality on the Quality of Educational Research

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment: unraveling a knowledge network

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