Is the Grass Always Greener? The Effect of the PISA Results on Education Debates in Sweden and Germany

Ringarp, Johanna; Rothland, Martin

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.3.422

Cited by 38 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…It is worth noting that most of the countries appeared to have educational systems which were to some degree changing, often as a result of policy-driven changes to curricula and pedagogic ethos (Vanderline et al 2008;Koustourakis 2007;Ringarp and Rothland 2010). Nevertheless, as we will discuss, the introduction of new tools -which might have encouraged new practices -does not necessarily mean a transformation in educational practices.…”

Section: Barriers To Creativity and Innovation In European Schools Anmentioning

confidence: 96%

What’s stopping us? Barriers to creativity and innovation in schooling across Europe

Banaji¹,

Cranmer²,

Perrotta

2013

Handbook of Research on Creativity

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IntroductionTheoretical definitions of creativity influence how and to what extent it is valued pedagogically and hence the usefulness awarded to innovation in the classroom. If it is seen as a realm for young geniuses, removed from the everyday of learning situations, then creativity becomes an elite affair and not the remit of most teachers. Similarly, if pedagogic innovation in teaching is something that requires an enormous infrastructure of new technological tools, then its absence can be blamed on the lack of such tools. A democratic view of creativity as something that can be nurtured to greater or lesser extents in all humans and that enhances both learning and lifeskills, however, is, of late, a more common claim in discussions of this topic. Classroom practices, however, do not always remain in synch with the latest debates in any given field. This chapter articulates practical insights from research carried out by the authors for the Institute of Prospective Technological Studies (henceforward IPTS) in Seville on Creativity and Innovation in compulsory education across Europe. In particular, the expert perspectives -of high school inspectors, government education advisors, teacher trainers and academics, with a specialisation in teaching with new technologies, creative learning or innovative teaching -complemented research on teacher perspectives and curriculum documents carried out on behalf of IPTS by other teams of researchers. While that research involved large-scale self-reporting surveys of teachers in European schools and comparative textual analysis of available national and regional documentation involving references to creativity, the expert perspectives collected for our part of the study identify and contextualise the political and philosophical underpinnings of widespread pedagogic beliefs and practices with regard to creativity and innovation in schools. For instance, findings from the survey of curriculum documents note the general dearth of references to creativity outside the context of the Arts curriculum, and the gradual linking of innovation in more recent documents to new media technologies. Interviews with expert stakeholders delved into these perceived gaps and the changes as well as into the role such documents might be said to have on the actual class-room practices of teachers, children and young people. The data generated, thus, systematically describe and debate factors seen to structure, support, hinder or 2 block pedagogic innovation and educational creativity in policy and practice. In this context, our chapter draws on the views of these targeted educational stakeholders in order to reflect on the systemic (governmental, political) and contextual (economic, cultural) or historical (regional, national) and individual (local, school-specific) barriers to implementing innovative methods in the teaching and evaluation of creativity in formal schooling. It is therefore framed around two key research questions: 1) What are the links between educational policies on Creativity ...

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Section: Barriers To Creativity and Innovation In European Schools Anmentioning

confidence: 96%

What’s stopping us? Barriers to creativity and innovation in schooling across Europe

Banaji¹,

Cranmer²,

Perrotta

2013

Handbook of Research on Creativity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The American ethnographer Fox (1989,18) has referred to this tendency as 'ethnographic dazzle', which can distract us from more subtle comparisons and meaning making and lead us to draw simplistic causal relationships, for instance between student outcome and classroom practice, as demonstrated in much media and policy reaction to the publication of international league tables (Rautalin & Alasuutari 2009;Ringarp & Rothland 2010). Thus, it is important to avoid polarisation: of the insider or the outsider, the 'social constructionist' versus the overly fixed 'essentialist' in terms of different societies and communities.…”

Section: Why Revisit the Concepts Of The Insider/outsider?mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Ethnographic dazzle’ and the construction of the ‘Other’: revisiting dimensions of insider and outsider research for international and comparative education

McNess

Arthur

Crossley

2013

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

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This paper presents some initial ideas on how the theoretical concepts of the 'insider' and the 'outsider' might be re-examined in an era where advances in comparative, qualitative research methodologies seek to be more inclusive, collaborative, participatory, reflexive and nuanced. Earlier essentialist definitions of the outsider as detached and objective, and the insider as culturally-embedded and subjective, are re-examined and set within an international research and teaching context which recognises the increased migration of people, ideas and educational policies. It is argued that, in the context of such change, it has become more difficult to categorise and label groups and individuals as being 'inside' or 'outside' systems, professional communities, or research environments. Such essentialist notions, which often underpin the production of large-scale, international datasets of pupil achievement, need to be challenged so that more complex understandings can inform, not only new methods of research design, research ethics, data collection and analysis, but also the creation of new knowledge, giving more validity to related education policymaking. We recognise that individual and group identities can be multiple, flexible and changing such that the boundary between the inside and the outside is permeable, less stable and less easy to draw. The concept of a 'third', liminal space may have the potential to encourage new meaning which is constructed on the boundary between worlds where historical, social, cultural, political, ethical and individual understandings meet.

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“…A number of countries in the middle of the distribution -notably the United States and Germany -responded to ILSAs. For example, in Germany, there was much discussion of 'PISA shock' around the fact that its PISA scores in science dropped from 'above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average' to 'no different from OECD average ' between 2006(Ringarp & Rothland, 2010. Similarly, the average scores for the United States on both TIMSS and PISA have been touchstones for calls for education reform for decades (Smith, 2002).…”

Section: Ilsas As Whips Particularly In Developing Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

International Large-Scale Assessments: Thermometers, Whips or Useful Policy Tools?

Lockheed

Wagemaker

2013

Research in Comparative and International Education

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Over the past three decades, the number of developing countries participating in International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs) has increased dramatically, while developing countries' usage of data from ILSAs for informing educational policy has not been fully realised. In this paper the authors argue that for ILSAs to be useful policy tools, alignment must occur between ILSAs' measurement quality mission and their capacity development mission. They review the use of ILSAs as both 'whips' and 'thermometers' and discuss issues in measurement related to the range of skills assessed, their capacity to measure change over time, and the inclusion of other indicators to measure home, classroom and school factors related to student achievement. They then discuss how ILSAs have built assessment capacity in developing countries and what further changes would be needed to improve their utility for policymakers.

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Is the Grass Always Greener? The Effect of the PISA Results on Education Debates in Sweden and Germany

Cited by 38 publications

References 9 publications

What’s stopping us? Barriers to creativity and innovation in schooling across Europe

What’s stopping us? Barriers to creativity and innovation in schooling across Europe

‘Ethnographic dazzle’ and the construction of the ‘Other’: revisiting dimensions of insider and outsider research for international and comparative education

International Large-Scale Assessments: Thermometers, Whips or Useful Policy Tools?

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