ABSTRACT
International statistical comparisons of nations have become commonplace in the contemporary landscape of education policy and social science. This book discusses the emergence of these international comparisons as a particular style of reasoning about education, society and science. By examining how international educational assessments have come to dominate much of contemporary policymaking concerning school system performance, the authors provide concrete case studies highlighting the preeminent role of numbers in furthering neoliberal education reform. Demonstrating how numbers serve as ‘rationales’ to shape and fashion social issues, this text opens new avenues for thinking about institutional and epistemological factors that produce and shape educational policy, research and schooling in transnational contexts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
section I|51 pages
Numbers
chapter 3|18 pages
On the Contest of Lists and Their Governing Capacities
chapter 4|15 pages
Time, Drawing, Testing
section II|74 pages
The Field of Making of Data
section III|54 pages
Large-Scale Assessment as the Production of Numbers
chapter 12|16 pages
OECD as a Site of Coproduction
section IV|38 pages
The Dissolution of the Science/Society Distinction