Providing a Platform for "What Works": Reconstituting Teacher Professional Expertise Through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's PISA4U

• In Event: Local to Global: Influence and Impact of Educational Research in the Public Interest

Abstract

This paper addresses emerging modes of educational governance constituted through new online platforms for teacher professional development. Specifically, we focus on the OECD’s PISA4U, an online professional learning platform comprising structured learning modules and collaborative activities based on PISA-derived data. We explore how the PISA4U platform, as both a data infrastructure and new organizational form, forges new connections between otherwise diverse schooling spaces and international actors, and helps displace more traditional, professionally-grounded forms of teacher knowledge and expertise. Rather than simply providing an online forum for dialogue and collaboration, we conclude that PISA4U enables the OECD to consolidate their expert status in education, providing a technical and discursive ‘platform’ from which the OECD can speak to the teaching profession.

Authors

• Steven Lewis, Deakin University

• Elisa Di Gregorio, The University of Melbourne