ABSTRACT
Much research has affirmed the role of knowledge in the shaping of education policies and implementation of education reforms on both national and global levels. Expertise plays a crucial role in the production and interpreting of knowledge. It is “a specific activity of knowledge production participating in the process of negotiation and orientation of public policy” (Normand 2017: p. 74; see also Ozga 2011; Lawn & Normand 2014). This chapter analyses and contextualises the changing role and relationship of the state and expertise in Brazil, China, and Russia, when large-scale QAE policies in school education have been undertaken. New global policy networks are built by private providers, a “diverse set of think tanks, consultants, multi?lateral agencies, donors, education businesses, and philanthropies” and policy communities of shared conceptions of social problems and their solutions. “[N]ew narratives of what counts as a ‘good’ policy are articulated and validated” (Juneman, Ball, & Santori 2016, 537–538; Ball 2007). This has “brought new players, voices, values, and discourses into policy conversations” and “governance by networks”. In Brazil, China, and Russia, expert bodies have more power than they used to. They have all striven to expand the collection and use of QAE data by experts.
