PISA: multiple ‘truths’ and mediatised global governance

Grey, Sue; Morris, Paul

doi:10.1080/03050068.2018.1425243

Cited by 58 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Since its launch in 2000, the OECD has made strategic use of media channels to market PISA as the 'premier yardstick of education quality' (Grey and Morris 2018), positioning it as a reliable indicator of a nation's future economic competitiveness (Kallo 2009), and as a useful tool to put an "end to complacency" in education (Schleicher 2018, 20). Contrary to Ward's claim, the goal of extending the reach of PISA through PISA-D emerged much earlier than the post-2015 discussions.…”

Section: The Oecd's 'New Paradigm For Development'mentioning

confidence: 99%

PISA for Development: how the OECD and World Bank shaped education governance post-2015

Auld

Rappleye

Morris³

2018

Comparative Education

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The year 2015 was significant for the arena of international development, as UNESCO's Education for All agenda was replaced by Education 2030, which would identify minimum standards of education quality. The OECD had been working on extending its existing PISA assessment into low-and middle-income countries through PISA for Development (PISA-D) and positioned the new assessment as a means of tracking progress on the post-2015 goals. The organisation maintains that PISA-D was introduced primarily in response to the demands of the international community, especially low-and middle-income countries, and that the assessment was developed in partnership with them. This paper investigates those claims through an analysis of the arrival of PISA-D in Cambodia, situating the analysis within UNESCO's shifting agenda, and the strategic visions of the OECD and World Bank that first emerged in the 1990s. The result is a very different picture to the portrayals of local agency, demand, consensus and partnership that adorn the official websites and pamphlets of global agencies and much academic research, raising serious doubts about education governance post-2015.

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Section: The Oecd's 'New Paradigm For Development'mentioning

confidence: 99%

PISA for Development: how the OECD and World Bank shaped education governance post-2015

Auld

Rappleye

Morris³

2018

Comparative Education

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“…Yemini and Gordon (2017) suggest Israeli newspapers devote most of their attention to international examinations, rather than national examinations which are perceived as redundant. Grey and Morris (2018) demonstrate the distortion of the OECD's original messages by the UK government, and how media 'framed the results in terms of a narrative of decline, crisis and the need for urgent reform … giving little coverage to either the recommended policy actions or the contrasting interpretations of the PISA results by politicians and the OECD' (p. 1). Steiner-Khamsi et al 2018analyse business-oriented US newspapers who see 'education as a profitable business opportunity' but perceive education as being in crisis with 'no correlation between spending and education outcome', while also expressing the value of 'school accountability, teacher performance, and decentralisation' for improving the quality of education (p. 190).…”

Section: Student Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the field of education research and media

Baroutsis¹

2018

Education Research and the Media

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“…It has been noted that the transnational power of OECD is paradoxical, given that it lacks any formal power to regulate countries, resulting in a "soft" power (Mahon & McBride, 2008). Crucial mechanisms in making such power work is the role of the media (Grey & Morris, 2018;Hamilton, 2017), rankings (Martens & Niemann, 2013;Steiner-Khamsi, 2003) and crisis rhetoric (Landahl, 2017;Takayama, 2008;Waldow, 2009). Of importance is also the fact that the OECD gradually has expanded its range of influence by introducing studies such as PISA for development (Addey, 2017), PISA for schools (Lingard & Lewis, 2017) TALIS and PIACC (Volante, Fazio, & Ritzen, 2017).…”

Section: Merging Temporal and Metric Studies: Theoretical And Methodomentioning

confidence: 99%

The PISA calendar: Temporal governance and international large-scale assessments

Landahl

2020

Educational Philosophy and Theory

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This article analyses international large-scale assessments in education from a temporal perspective. The article discusses and compares the different conceptions of time in the early international assessments conducted in the 1960s and 1970s by the IEA with the PISA studies conducted by the OECD from the year 2000 onwards. The paper argues that there has been a shift in the ways that the assessments structure time. The early IEA surveys were characterized by a relative slowness, lack of synchronization and lack of trend analyses. PISA, by contrast, is characterized by high pace, simultaneous publication of results around the world and regular and recurrent studies making the analysis of trends possible. The emergence of this new time regime, it is argued, has implications for how education is governed. At the transnational level, it strengthens the influence and importance of OECD as a significant policy actor. At the national level, as educational discourse and policy adapts to the temporalities of the PISA calendar, two kinds of effects can be distinguished. First, there is a tendency towards searching for "retrotopian" solutions for contemporary problems. Second, there is a tendency towards acceleration and short-term planning when it comes to educational reforms. ARTICLE HISTORYWhen the Norwegian minister of education Torbjørn Røe Isaksen woke up early in the morning on December 6, 2016, he knew that it was a special day. In fact, it was "one of the most important days in my time as a minister. The PISA day. It had been written down in my calendar for at least a year." (Morgenbladet, 2016). The idea that there is a special day when the overall quality of a national school system is assessed says something about the peculiar nature of how education, in contrast to other societal sectors, is measured today. The economy and the environment are, to name two examples, measured on a continual basis. Education, by contrast, is with the PISA survey measured every third year and reported on a special day, accompanied by massive media coverage. Historically this is a new phenomenon, marking a new way in which education is measured and governed. What I call the "PISA calendar" refers to a new temporal regime in which international assessments are conducted regularly, reported swiftly and simultaneously across the whole world. The aim of the article is to explore how this temporal regime of international assessments emerged and the potential influence it has over educational policy and CONTACT Joakim Landahl

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PISA: multiple ‘truths’ and mediatised global governance

Cited by 58 publications

References 51 publications

PISA for Development: how the OECD and World Bank shaped education governance post-2015

PISA for Development: how the OECD and World Bank shaped education governance post-2015

Mapping the field of education research and media

The PISA calendar: Temporal governance and international large-scale assessments

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