Mathematics educators are speaking about PISA, aren’t they?

Abstract

This paper sets out to explore the different uses made of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Program for International Student Assessment (OECD-PISA) tests and data in mathematics education research. Through a comprehensive literature review of journals and conference papers, we show that although a large variety of topics is addressed, they do not cover all the topics considered in mathematics education research. Analysing the temporal and geographical distribution of papers, we find that there is increasing interest in the use of PISA in our field of research and that different countries are involved in different ways in mathematics education research about PISA. As a conclusion, we suggest that critical research into the effect of PISA can be developed further, especially in those countries that have joined the OECD survey in recent years. Other future research paths using data from PISA are detected.