Halos, love boats, and the Pisa family
Understanding contractors’ rationales for carrying out International Large-Scale Assessment contracts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11920764 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Camilla Addey (0000-0001-8431-5568, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 966-983 |
| Publication date | 2022-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Compare A Journal of Comparative and International Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7925 • E-ISSN: 1469-3623 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057925.2022.2152278 |
| OpenAlex | W4311056401 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 38 |
Why are contractors keen to develop, implement, and analyse International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs) when they appear to make no financial gains? What, if not monetary profit, makes ILSA contracts so attractive? Almost all ILSA contractors interviewed as part of this project state that their ILSA work is an investment, either in the form of a break-even or a loss contract. This paper discusses why contractors carry out ILSA contracts or donate to ILSAs, analysing 35 interviews with OECD and IEA staff and ILSA contractors and applying policy borrowing and lending theory to non-state actors. Drawing on Brostrom's (2012) study, this paper identifies contractor rationales on an organizational level that relate to developing improved or new products and processes, gaining access to networks, managing human capital, and creating direct business opportunities. This paper adds a fifth category of individual rationales, whereby contractors are driven by professional opportunities, lifestyles, and emotional bonds that ILSAs provide. What becomes apparent is an innovation rhetoric gap and that ILSAs are a 'golden door' to business opportunities. The paper concludes that contractors' motivations and agendas become encoded in ILSAs as they buy themselves into ILSA networks, thus shaping the way education is measured, understood, and acted upon
Astrophysics · Business · Galaxy · Geography · Halo · Physics · Scale (ratio · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Higher Education Learning Practices · Psychology
Educational Import
World Yearbook of Education 2016
Global Education Inc.
The Sustainability of University-Industry Research Collaboration
Educational standards and the changing discourse on education
The Politics and Economics of Comparison
Lessons Learned from Pisa
Cross-national policy borrowing
Golden relics & historical standards
Standards are good (for) business
Making global education markets and trade
World yearbook of education 2012
Mapping new philanthropy and the heterarchical state
The rise of international large-scale assessments and rationales for participation
Piloting Pisa for development to success
Providing a platform for ‘what works’
The ‘will to give’
Commercialising comparison
Examining the influence of international large-scale assessments on national education policies
Governing schooling through ‘what works’
Following policy
The OECD and the expansion of Pisa
A Sociology of Quantification
Pay to play
The social order of markets
| Citations per year | 2.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |