Interface of International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA) Data and ILSA Infrastructure: How Are International Assessments Making Our Educational Reality?

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Abstract

By employing theories from infrastructure studies and sociology of standards, this paper examines how international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) influence global education through shaping secondary data analyses frequently used for evidence-based policymaking. By conducting and reflecting on two parallel quantitative analyses using TIMSS and PISA data respectively, it illustrates how the decontextualization and reductionism embedded in ILSAs’ testing modes, questionnaire designs, and variables construction jointly determine what research we can conduct, and shape the way we carry it out and define certain perspectives and actors as important while excluding the rest. The findings call for more research approaches that capture the complexity and dynamics of education, and a more comprehensive way of evaluating learning outcomes.

Author

• Yuqing Wu, Beijing Normal University
  Presenting Author