The "Beauty" of PISA: The Politics of How PISA Scores Are Used to Represent Public Education

• In Event: What Does It Mean? The Role of Assessment and Data in Public Opinion

Abstract

In this paper, I offer a new perspective on the intended and unintended effects of international large-scale assessments like PISA, and investigate the image of PISA as an aesthetic artefact. Using Jacques Rancière’s diptych The Aesthetics of Politics and The Politics of Aesthetics, I analyse more than 4,000 digital images retrieved from systematic Google searches in 12 different countries. The results show clear differences between low- and high-performing countries concerning the images selected to present PISA results. There is clearly a ‘pictorial discourse’ that works in tandem with the dominant educational policies. I argue that this kind of ‘aesthetic governing’ involves the possibility of touching people in other, and maybe even more profound ways, compared to rational arguments.

Author

• Christian Jan Lundahl, Örebro University