ERIC Number: EJ1029849
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1474-9041
Towards a Sociology of Measurement in Education Policy
Gorur, Radhika
European Educational Research Journal, v13 n1 p58-72 2014
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has developed impressive machinery to produce international comparative data across more than 70 systems of education and these data have come to be used extensively in policy circles around the world. In many countries, national and international comparative data are used as the bases for significant, high-stakes policy and reform decisions. This article traces how international comparability is produced, using the example of equity measurement in OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It focuses on the construction of the objects of comparison and traces the struggles to produce equivalence and commensurability across diverse and complex worlds. Based on conversations with a number of measurement experts who are familiar with the OECD and PISA, the article details how comparability is achieved and how it falters and fails. In performing such an analysis, this research is not concerned with "exposing" the limitations of comparison or challenging their validity. Rather, based on the work of Steve Woolgar and other scholars, it attempts to mobilise a "sociology of measurement" that explores the instrumentalism and performativity of the technologies of international comparisons.
Descriptors: Sociology, Comparative Education, Foreign Countries, Validity, Measurement, Academic Achievement, Educational Policy, Educational Change, Decision Making, Achievement Tests, Cross Cultural Studies, Evaluation Methods, Secondary School Students
Symposium Journals. P.O. Box 204, Didcot, Oxford, OX11 9ZQ, UK. Tel: +44-1235-818-062; Fax: +44-1235-817-275; e-mail: subscriptions@symposium-journals.co.uk; Web site: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/eerj
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: Program for International Student Assessment

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