ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of Shanghai's strong performance on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2009. The analysis in this chapter focuses on political and media responses to Shanghai's performance in the USA, England, and Australia. The chapter argues that the top performance of Shanghai and other East Asian nations in 2009 produced are seen as global PISA shock. Following Martens and Niemann argument this shock was felt in the USA, England, and Australia following PISA 2009, because performance in those nations was framed in terms of being outperformed educationally by an ascendant China. The chapter proffers a framework for analysis, which focuses on the growing significance of the OECD's PISA in the emergent global education policy field. It suggests that the semantics of globalization is now a part of the disposition of influential policy makers within international organizations and national education systems and contributes to the prevalence of externalization.
