Competing interests of stakeholders in a policy-driven test
A sociological analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21511249 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yan Jin (0000-0001-7749-7367, Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Guoxing Yu (0000-0001-5997-2734, University of Bristol, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 223-242 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Oxford Review of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-4985 • E-ISSN: 1465-3915 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03054985.2024.2442586 |
| OpenAlex | W4408444973 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 25 |
The operation of a large-scale test involves an array of stakeholders, each having distinct interests and concerns regarding the test’s design, administration, and impact. In this article, we adopt a sociological perspective to examine the educational and societal motives underlying two recent reforms of the College English Test (CET) in China. Launched in the 1980s during China’s opening to the world, the CET has grown into the largest language test globally, with over 20 million participants annually. In the analysis of the two cases, we scrutinised the diverse interests and concerns of stakeholders regarding these reforms, exploring their perspectives and the compromises reached through negotiation. Our case study reveals that the content and format of the CET have been significantly shaped by the evolving societal needs throughout China’s open-door policy implementation. We argue that a sociological approach illuminates the power dynamics of educational assessment reform, providing deeper insight into stakeholders’ divergent interests. This analysis contributes to our understanding of how large-scale tests operate within complex social and political contexts, balancing multiple stakeholder priorities
Political science · Social science · Sociology · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Public Administration
Test Use and Political Philosophy
Decision making in large-scale language testing
College English Test–Spoken English Test (CET-SET)
Local English testing in China’s tertiary education
Critical discursive approaches to evaluating policy-driven testing
Test review
Test-taker insights for language assessment policies and practices
Validity theory
So, why do we need relationships with stakeholders in language testing? A view from the UK
A corpus-based investigation into the validity of the CET-SET group discussion
Students' voices in the evaluation of their written summaries
How powerful can a language test be? The met in China
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |