Critiquing literacy assessments: Assembling a sociology of numbers

• In Event: Global Literacy SIG Highlighted Session: Literacy as numbers: Researching the politics and practices of international literacy assessment (Part 1)

Abstract

The alarming ubiquity and influence of numbers as measures of literacy have been accompanied by strong critique of the use of numbers in policy. These arguments can be summarised as follows: (a) quantification cannot capture the complexity of education and is inherently reductive; (b) numbers are becoming hegemonic and marginalising other ways of knowing; (c) numbers are a technology of governmentality and should be resisted; and (d) numbers are being misused in policy and should be viewed with suspicion. In this presentation, I will argue that whilst all of these criticisms are legitimate and useful, they are not sufficient. Taking a cue from scholars in Science and Technology Studies, I will suggest that measurements of literacy are performative – that is, world-making – processes. I will explore the consequences of such an understanding for critique, and propose that a ‘sociology of measurement’ is required to adequately and effectively critique the ever-expanding field of literacy measurements. To craft my argument, I will focus on the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and draw upon a range of interviews with PISA and OECD officials and measurement experts that I have conducted across several related projects (from 2006 to 2014). While PISA makes an ideal case study, I suggest that the argument I develop here holds for a critique of numbers in general, and applies not only to other literacy assessments, but more widely to the current translations of the world into numbers across a range of social policy terrains.

Author

• Radhika Gorur, Victoria University