Governing by Numbers: The PISA ‘Effect’ in Europe

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Abstract / Description of output

This paper examines the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which has become a major and influential component of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) educational work. This measure of comparative performance of educational systems of member and other nations is based on tests commissioned by the OECD. The paper discusses the role of the OECD in establishing the ‘comparative’ turn and also describes PISA, its management and effects. It provides three examples of the impact of PISA in Finland, Germany and the UK before moving the focus to its impacts at the transnational level, through an examination of how key European policy actors see PISA and its effects. The paper concludes that PISA, through its direct impact on national education systems in Europe and beyond, has become an indirect, but nonetheless influential tool of the new political technology of governing the European education space by numbers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)23-37
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Education Policy
Volume24
Issue number1
Early online date22 Jan 2009
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • comparative
  • critical analysis
  • OECD PISA
  • European education space

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