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The focus in this article is on Brazilian education policy, specifically quality assurance and evaluation. The starting point is that quality, measured by means of large-scale assessments, is one of the key discursive justifications for educational change. The article addresses the questions of how quality evaluation became a significant feature of Brazilian education, and how international organisations are related to this. The notion of measurement emerged at the beginning of the 20th century among an active educational community, strongly inspired by US educational thinking and supported by instrumental educational cooperation with US agencies and universities. Largescale assessment became more and more popular in the 1960s-1980s, mainly within this setting. Educational indicators have been under development since the 1990s, alongside the educationrelated programmes of international organisations. Drawing on earlier research and documents, the article analyses historical and political influences from both international and national actors on the emergence of quality assessment in Brazilian basic education. The authors also point out

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In our present research we address the question of whether it is valid to apply the QAE (Quality Assurance and Evaluation) umbrella concept, which was formulated to explain new phenomena in European educational governance, to similar developments in Brazilian basic education. This led us to reflect on the possible pitfalls and potential strengths of using umbrella concepts as analytical tools. This article presents this exploration and its operationalization. We confronted in-built assumptions in QAE with the contested, consensual and creative use of the notion of quality in Brazilian basic education, and looked for relationships. Our analysis shows that the Brazilian developments reiterate the relationships concerning global interconnectivity, and challenges those pertaining to conformity. We argue that the main risks of using umbrella concepts seem to concern the reproduction of understandings, which frequently leads to the disregarding of deviation.

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Introduction: reflective researchOne of our research project's assumptions is that the topic of quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) is political: it is an important framing factor for education, a major interest for many different stakeholders, and a governance tool (Nóvoa & Yariv-Mashal 2003). In this respect, it is possible that our research will be used for political purposes, an aspect most of our research participants and fellow researchers certainly recognise. Self-reflection is therefore essential.In Chapter 1, we discussed our ontological and epistemological premises and how the analytical framework on which we draw, Comparative Analytics of Dynamics in Education Politics (CADEP), directs our focus to three dimensions we see as relevant for an understanding of the questions raised in complexity studies and the approaches of political science to contingency. While the previous chapter addressed the "why" question of our research, here we open more broadly the questions "how" and "what". There is no simple answer to these questions, because the shared view of scholars is that research is never as straightforward as research reports describe -and in this respect, this book is no exception. Our research journey has taken a route with paths, streets, cul-de-sacs, and wanderings through uncharted territories. As a research consortium, we have held CADEP as a compass, while continuously debating its interpretation. A description of this journey is needed for validity: indeed, sharing our journey is as important as arriving at our destination. In this chapter, we therefore chart it as fully and as critically as possible.We believe the key to maintaining validity in a qualitative research project such as ours is to adopt a reflective approach throughout. We share the view iterated by many scholars, but which Alvesson and Sköldberg (2009) aptly describe and summarise, that interpretation, and the interpretation of interpretation, is the key feature of research. They state that reflective research considers four elements, which we highlight here and discuss further in the following sub-chapters.• Researchers should be conscious of the interpretation made. We have channelled the interpretations from the outset with the help of the CADEP analytical framework. Despite this shared analytical starting point, Interpretation: comparing three dimensions of dynamicsWe continue this reflection on the nature of our research by addressing the question of our analytical framework in relation to those of others. Our research concentrates on understanding the political dynamics in QAE. To

The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) has instigated domestic policy debate aimed at improving education systems' quality and efficiency. Its high performers are often described as knowledge-based legitimation tools that have become reference societies. This article analyses if and the extent to which PISA affects the choice of reference societies used in education policy. We conducted a systematic literature review of scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles. We identify two ways in which PISA affects the reference societies chosen: it builds but also triggers the collapse of the reference societies used in domestic education policy. However, there are also cases in which PISA has little influence on which countries or regions are used as references. The domestic processes of choosing the reference societies used in education policy emerge as more nuanced than first expected. This article provides a firm basis for a much-needed understanding of the topic.