This document discusses international comparative surveys (ICS) of education systems. ICS projects aim to provide comparable data on education across countries to encourage reflection and improvement. They are used to gauge national education systems and identify best practices. However, some argue ICS have led countries to adopt standardized testing and corporate management models through the global education reform movement. While ICS increase awareness of other systems, they may also disrupt efforts to develop education that cultivates creativity and well-being.

1. International Comparative
Surveys
Tryggvi Thayer
University of Iceland
October, 2018

2. Today on
As the World Learns
The kind and caring
grandmother,
The return of the long-
lost twin,
The evil, rich egomaniac,
And the slow and painful death of
common sense.

3. Our discussion here today
• What is the theory underlying the current
wave of international comparative survey (ICS)
projects?
• How are the outcomes of these projects being
used?
• What is the impact of these projects?

4. The purpose of ICSs
• To provide comprehensive and comparable
data on educational inputs and outcomes at
the national level to encourage discourse,
reflection and improvement.
– What works in education?
– What are barriers to educational attainment?
– How do national educational systems rate in
comparison to others?
Gustafsson, 2008; Howie & Plomp, 2005

5. What do we want from ICSs?
• Provide high quality data for educational
research
• Gauge for evaluating national systems
• Compass for seeking out best practice

6. A brief history of ICSs
• 1950s-60s – Explanatory research
– IEA: Effects of various personal and social factors on education
– International approach creates “controls” to determine what mix works
• 1970s – Massive data
– Several large studies in various subjects
– Humongous data processing centers
– Emphasis is still on explanatory research – what’s the secret sauce?!?
• 1980s – Diminishing interest
• 1990s – Descriptive research
– TIMSS – ICSs’ big comeback
– Emphasis on “what is” rather than “what works”
– Explanatory research left up to others
• 2000s – Benchmarking
– OECD’s PISA
– Introduction of concept of “literacy”
– Equality takes center stage
– ICSs are policy tools – and not just educational policy
• 2010s – Academia on the warpath!

7. What do we get out of ICSs?
Sophisticated comparative analyses

8. What do we get out of ICSs?
Rankings

9. ICSs in contemporary discourse
• Educational systems influence
countries’/nations’/regions’ competitive status
within the global marketplace
– Educational system co-opted by the economic system
(Shift from Bourdieu’s (1993) autonomous to heteronomous
pole)
– A good educational system increases national
competitiveness
(Steiner-Khamsi, et al., 2006)
Concept of the “best” educational system is born.

10. PISA 2018: Global competence
1. the capacity to examine issues and situations of
local, global and cultural significance;
2. the capacity to understand and appreciate
different perspectives and world views;
3. the ability to establish positive interactions with
people of different national, ethnic, religious,
social or cultural backgrounds or gender; and
4. the capacity and disposition to take constructive
action toward sustainable development and
collective well-being.
OECD, 2018

11. Proposed assessment model
OECD, 2018

12. GERM!
Global Education Reform Movement
• Pasi Sahlberg (2014)
– GERM starts to emerge in the late 1980s
– Promotes:
• Standardised education
• Focus on traditional core subjects
• Minimal risk in pursuit of learning outcomes
• Corporate management models
• Test-based accountability

13. Policy borrowing: Shopping in the
educational policy marketplace?
Attention shoppers: Today’s blue light special is
Finnish educational policy in aisle 10!

14. Phillips & Ochs, 2003Stage III:
Implementation
Policy borrowing
in practice

15. How’s all this working out?
“Perhaps most important, participation in international
programs also increases awareness of the methods,
strategies, and policies employed by other countries and
education systems.”
(Tamassia & Adams, 2009, p. 213)
“[If I were a conspiracy theorist], I could say that PISA is a plot
to disrupt all Eastern Asian countries’ serious efforts to
develop an education system that cultivates confident,
creative, diverse, and happy students.”
(Yong Zhao, 2014)

16. References
• Bourdieu, P. (1993). The field of cultural production: Essays on art and literature. Columbia
University Press.
• Gustafsson, J-E. (2008). Effects of International Comparative Studies on Educational Quality on the
Quality of Educational Research. European Educational Research Journal, (7)1, 1-17.
• Howie S. & Plomp T. (2005) International Comparative Studies of Education and Large-Scale Change.
In: Bascia N., Cumming A., Datnow A., Leithwood K., Livingstone D. (eds) International Handbook of
Educational Policy. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht
• OECD (2018). Preparing our youth for an inclusive and sustainable world: The OECD PISA global
competence framework. OECD, Paris.
• Phillips, D., & Ochs, K. (2003). Processes of policy borrowing in education: Some explanatory and
analytical devices. Comparative education, 39(4), 451-461.
• Sahlberg, P. (2014). Finnish lessons 2.0: What can the world learn from educational change in
Finland?. Teachers College Press.
• Steiner‐Khamsi, G. (2006). The economics of policy borrowing and lending: A study of late
adopters. Oxford Review of Education, 32(5), 665-678.
• Tamassia, C. & Adams, R. (2009). International Assessments and Indicators. How Will Assessments
and Performance Indicators Improve Educational Policies and Practices in a Globalized Society?, In
The SAGE International Handbook of Educational Evaluation, pp. 213 – 229.
• Zhao, Y. (2014). How does PISA put the world at risk? Retrieved from
http://zhaolearning.com/2014/04/12/how-does-pisa-put-the-world-at-risk-part-5-racing-to-the-
past/.