Inspirations from abroad: the impact of PISA on countries’ choice of reference societies in education

Abstract

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.

Has Peak PISA passed? An investigation of interest in International Large-Scale Assessments across countries and over time

“…It has also arguably led to increased interest in evidence-based policymaking in education across the globe (OECD, 2019). The result has been for countries to increasingly look overseas for policy inspirations and ideas, leading to the creation of so-called reference societies (Santos and Centeno, 2021). Finland is a widely cited example, with the widespread international attention paid to their PISA results leading to other countries attempting to borrow policy from them (Chung, 2019).…”

Construct validity of international literacy measures: implications for dyslexia across cultures

“…In Asia, it is likely that the PISA measures generally are less comparable across linguistic and cultural dimensions (Grisay & Monseur, 2007 ; Grisay et al, 2009 ). One of the cases of ‘PISA shock’ (Santos & Centeno, 2021 ) in Asia was that of Japan's PISA rank decreasing from the 8th in 2000 to the 14th in 2003 (Takayama, 2008 ). Japanese students omitted 9% of the items in the PISA 2009 reading measure (Okumura, 2014 ).…”