Policy, philanthropy and profit : the OECD’s PISA for Schools and new modes of heterarchical educational governance

Journal article

Lewis, Steven. (2017). Policy, philanthropy and profit : the OECD’s PISA for Schools and new modes of heterarchical educational governance. Comparative Education. 53(4), pp. 518-537. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2017.1327246
AuthorsLewis, Steven
Abstract

This paper examines the development and administration of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Schools – a new testing instrument of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – to demonstrate the relevance of heterarchical processes to educational governance. Drawing suggestively across new ‘relational’ thinking around policy networks, and new spatialities associated with globalisation, the research shows how PISA for Schools helps constitute new spaces and relations of, and for, educational governance. Informed by policy documents and interviews conducted with 33 key actors across the PISA for Schools policy cycle, I show how PISA for Schools typifies contemporary educational policy-making and governance via the export of ‘statework’ to private actors and agencies, including intergovernmental organisations, philanthropic foundations and edu-businesses. I conclude by considering how treating PISA for Schools, and other similar education services, as a ‘product’ produces a potentially dangerous blurring of public and private benefits, with the potential that (private) profit might ultimately trump (public) education.

KeywordsPISA for Schools; OECD; heterarchy; governance; edubusiness; philanthropy; network
Year2017
JournalComparative Education
Journal citation53 (4), pp. 518-537
PublisherRoutledge
ISSN0305-0068
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2017.1327246
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85019603147
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range518-537
FunderAustralian Research Council (ARC)
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online23 May 2017
Publication process dates
Deposited11 Jun 2021
ARC Funded ResearchThis output has been funded, wholly or partially, under the Australian Research Council Act 2001
Grant IDARC/DP1094850
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