Contributing to the common good? Media coverage of the international largescale assessment of adult skills (PIAAC) in four national contexts

Abstract

This paper focuses on the rapidly expanding field of largescale international assessment surveys and their impact on the field of adult education and learning. I take the case of OECD's survey assessing adult skills (PIAAC) and situate it within the wider context of the datification of educational policy and practice. The claims made for the policy effects of surveys like PIAAC are far-reaching and include the promotion of economic growth and more inclusive and equitable societies. I examine how these claims are translated into national contexts by examining documentary data collected from the OECDs publicity materials and media coverage of the second round PIAAC survey findings in 2016 in four of the nine countries that took part: Singapore, Greece, New Zealand and Slovenia. Using a socio-material approach, I discuss how these discourses were managed by the OECD and national actors and show how the survey findings are framed and interpreted through existing public debates. The paper concludes that international assessments do not serve the goals of growth and equity in any straightforward way, since many interests and contextual factors may intervene to create a mismatch between the testers' intentions, media discourse and policy outcomes.

PIAAC and the South – Is Southering the new Othering? Global Expansion of dominant Discourses on Adult Literacy

“…The mass media discourse after the second round shows some interesting specifics, especially on Singapore and Greece. Hamilton shows that despite very similar results the development in Singapore is interpreted as a positive trend of educational achievements, while for Greece incapable educational policy and dependency from the European North is reported (Hamilton, 2018). Even though the empirical findings are more or less the same, the overall narratives of a successful, (neo-)liberal Asian economy and an unsuccessful, southern European economy dominate the discourse.…”

“…The involvement of international organizations like the OECD has been discussed (Ydesen & Grek, 2019) as well as their growing influence on national educational policies (Grek, 2010). As a result ILSAs have become the currently most important tool in research on adult competences (Addey, 2018;Gorur, 2015;Hamilton, 2018). In PIAAC literacy is defined as 'the ability to understand, evaluate, use and engage with written texts to participate in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential' (OECD, 2013a, p. 59).…”

“…This paper relies on official publications and the data analysis tools provided by the OECD. Scholars focus on the mass media discourse after publication of first and second round of PIAAC results (Hamilton, 2018;Hamilton, Maddox, & Addey, 2015;Yasukawa, Hamilton, & Evans, 2016). The mass media discourse after the second round shows some interesting specifics, especially on Singapore and Greece.…”

“…However the reproduction of surveys requires very specialised knowledge. Hamilton states that an 'industry of workshops' to train scholars for secondary analyses travels around the world (Hamilton, 2018). 5 Countries from the Global South therefore might feel under pressure either to buy the standard instruments from the northern organizations or to start a long-term capacity-building process to gain their own knowledge.…”

Low literacy in Germany: Results from the second German literacy survey

“…Brian Street made the influential distinction between an autonomous model and an ideological model of literacy (Street, 2003). Part of the history of that debate, however, seems to be forgotten (Hamilton, 2018). Largescale surveys like the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALL), and-more recently-the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) had a strong impact on how literacy is defined and understood (for a critical appraisal, see Hamilton, Maddox, & Addey, 2015).…”