PISA, Power, and Policy: the emergence of global educational governance

Front Cover
Heinz-Dieter Meyer, Aaron Benavot
Symposium Books Ltd, May 13, 2013 - Education - 336 pages

Over the past ten years the PISA assessment has risen to strategic prominence in the international education policy discourse. Sponsored, organized and administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA seems well on its way to being institutionalized as the main engine in the global accountability regime.

The goal of this book is to problematize this development and PISA as an institution-building force in global education. It scrutinizes the role of PISA in the emerging regime of global educational governance and questions the presumption that the quality of a nation’s school system can be evaluated through a standardized assessment that is insensitive to the world’s vast cultural and institutional diversity. The book raises the question of whether PISA’s dominance in the global educational discourse runs the risk of engendering an unprecedented process of worldwide educational standardization for the sake of hitching schools more tightly to the bandwagon of economic efficiency, while sacrificing their role to prepare students for independent thinking and civic participation. 

 

Contents

Acknowledgements
7
some puzzles and problems
9
a review of key PISA research questions
27
an analysis of dynamics in education politics
51
TIINA SILANDER JOUNI VÄLIJÄRVI The Theory and Practice of Building Pedagogical Skill in Finnish Teacher Education
77
PAUL ANDREWS What Does PISA Performance Tell Us about Mathematics Teaching Quality? Case Studies from Finland and Flanders
99
PISA and the search for best practices and magic bullets
117
thinking historically about PISA
141
HEINZDIETER MEYER KATHRYN SCHILLER Gauging the Role of Noneducational Effects in
207
XIN MA CINDY JONG JING YUAN Exploring Reasons for the East Asian Success in PISA
225
the influence of origin destination and community
247
YONG ZHAO HEINZDIETER MEYER High on PISA Low on Entrepreneurship? What PISA Does Not Measure
267
the bad and the notsobad news
279
ALEXANDER W WISEMAN Policy Responses to PISA in Comparative Perspective
303
Notes on Contributors
323
Index
329

MARLAINE LOCKHEED Causes and Consequences of International Assessments in
163
SAM SELLAR BOB LINGARD PISA and the Expanding Role of the OECD in Global
185

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