ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses two major features of the educational model fostered by OECD through PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), that is, standardization1 and atomization of educational practices. It argues that such features are both the ground, and the overall outcomes of OECD's educational agenda. Competition, standardization and atomization work together in the same direction, to construct an all-encompassing, educational space, one which educational actors are, at the very same time, divided from each other and pushed to conform themselves to the same standards. The chapter attempts to further develop the claim that PISA acts and, indeed, is a sophisticated form of authoritarian teaching. The effect is that everyone engaged in education runs for her or himself, while education is standardized worldwide. The individualization and atomization of educational processes and practices pursued by the OECD, then, implies a progressive eclipse of the democratic and ethical dimensions of such processes and practices.
