Reforming governance through policy instruments: how and to what extent standards, tests and accountability in education spread worldwide

Abstract

In the last decades, most countries have adopted data-intensive policy instruments aimed at modernizing the governance of education systems, and strengthening their competitiveness. Instruments such as national large-scale assessments and testbased accountabilities have disseminated widely, to the point that they are being enacted in countries with very different administrative traditions and levels of economic development. Nonetheless, comparative research on the trajectories that governance instruments follow in different institutional and socioeconomic contexts is still scarce. On the basis of a systematic literature review (n = 158), this paper enquires into the scope and modalities of educational governance change that national largescale assessments and test-based accountability instruments have triggered in a broad range of institutional settings. The paper shows that, internationally, educational governance reforms advance through path-dependent and contingent processes of policy instrumentation that are markedly conditioned by prevailing politico-administrative regimes. The paper also reflects on the additive and evolving nature of educational governance reforms.

Exploring alternatives to the ‘neoliberalism’ critique: new language for contemporary global reform

“…Bamberger, Morris, and Yemini (2019) demonstrate that a 'neoliberal framing does not explain the nature of internationalisation of Higher Education in many nations', by pointing to examples located in China, Israel and Cuba. In their discussion of 'data-intensive governance instruments' across various geopolitical sites in Europe, Verger, Fontdevila, and Parcerisa (2019) posit that the evolution of these instruments 'needs to be seen as context-sensitive, contingent and path-dependent'.…”

“…Verger et al's (2019) paper integrates an analysis of policy and politics, in their systematic and in-depth review of policy instruments across various socio-political sites, asserting 'two critical moments of educational policy change, first, the adoption of new policy instruments and, second, the evolving uses assigned to these instruments once they are being enacted'. The adoption of new policy instruments, as these authors write, 'is a very political moment that does not always follow technocratic and pragmatic logic' (Verger et al, 2019). The final paper 'Capitalism without capital' aims to generate a final provocation in considering the role of the intangible economy in education reform (Rowe, 2019).…”

Art Education At School: Quality Assessment And Search For Objective Criteria

“…One can also mention new tendencies, and also standardization, undoubtedly required relevant to standards, rules and certain characteristics, in other words, all things that relate to regulation of the fields of production, education, safety and security, etc. (Verger, Fontdevila, & Parcerisa, 2019). But it is quite disputable when it relates, for example, to a human being itself, their individual, artistic perception of the outside world, aesthetic attitude to reality, various activities, including creative ones.…”

La identidad de las educadoras diferenciales en tiempos de políticas de accountability

“…A su vez, en otras investigaciones que se han desarrollado en Chile, referidas a las educadoras diferenciales se han examinado las percepciones y creencias de estas docentes vinculadas a la co-enseñanza que promueve el decreto N° 170 (2009), identificando factores que se constituyen en barreras y facilitadores en su implementación (Rodríguez y Ossa, 2014;Urbina et al, 2017). En tanto, en otros estudios se ha indagado en las percepciones de las educadoras y de otros actores educativos, respecto a la implementación de la diversificación curricular que propone el decreto N° 83 5 (2015) en asignaturas como matemáticas en escuelas de educación especial (San Martín, Salas, Howard & Blanco, 2017).…”