Daniel Pettersson

From role models to nations in need of advice: Norway and Sweden under the OECD’s magnifying glass

Abstract By analysing five separate OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment practices with Norway and Sweden as cases, our study illustrates different ways in which a specific international educational reasoning is blended into more context-based national education policies and, as such, works in parallel with internal reforms and agendas. It is evident that an overarching narrative promotes the importance of coherent and integrated systems of evaluation and assessment in order to strengthen social and political endeavours for equity, quality and achievements. The parallel mix of OECD discourses and national discourses creates a combined narrative in which evaluations and assessments appear natural, self-evident and rational as well as highly adaptable to national settings. The study shows that national vertical and/or horizontal developments are intertwined with the OECD policy recommendations, which are quite general in character. In a continuing process of uploading and downloading, within different contexts, policies are elaborated and recontextualised. Evaluations and assessments are part of a contemporary rational paradigm for mapping and promoting performance in national educational systems – what we identify as a comparative curriculum code.

In the grey zone: large-scale assessment-based activities betwixt and between policy, research and practice

ABSTRACT This paper elaborates on a systematic research review containing 11,000 articles on international large-scale assessment (ILSA) research. Several activities operating under the ‘formal radar’ of science and governmental policy are observed, which we analytically name ‘grey zone’ activities. These activities are historicised, presented and discussed. An analytical division into three different reasons for performing the activities is made: an entrepreneurial policy reason, an entrepreneurial profitable reason and an appurtenance reason. This division highlights some of the actors in the educational grey zone. The paper is theoretical and elaborative, and contains examples of the activities that can be found in a grey zone.

Curriculum versus Didaktik revisited : towards a transnational curriculum theory

no abstract available Citation: NordSTEP 2015, 1 : 27014 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/nstep.v1.27014

Approaching the space issue in Nordic curriculum theory: national reflections of globalisation in social studies/citizenship textbook pictures in Sweden, England and Germany

This article focuses on globalisation in Nordic curriculum theory by investigating the issue of space. It puts forward an increased interest in the practical levels of schooling and argues that globalisation should be investigated not only as a policy phenomenon but also as instructional matter in different contexts. It presents two perspectives of space, a container and a relational perspective. A distinction between the two perspectives contributes to an understanding of how the world is constructed at different levels of curriculum. The article tests its argument with an explorative social studies and citizenship textbook study in the national contexts of Sweden, England and Germany. It can be shown that all cases differ in their portrayals of globalisation and in the constructions of space-related issues.

Läxor – en oreglerad bedömningspraktik

In this article we raise the question why schools give homework. It is easily observed that homework is given as a natural tradition within the schools. With that in mind, we are discussing the attitudes and the alleged utility of homework. In this, among other things, we are investigating the actors’ point of view – teachers, parents and pupils. We have found that the practice of homework in many parts is unregulated and non-reflected. Therefore we state that this field of knowledge has to be better investigated in the future. One of the reasons for this is that it seems to be true to say that homework is a part of the school’s judgement and assessment practices and if that is so it is important that all the actors knows what every judgment and assessment is grounded on. That is not the case right now.

Soft infusion : Constructing 'Teachers' in the PISA sphere

Since their inception, international large-scale assessments introduced by the OECD, such as PISA, have been widely discussed and disseminated in various social fields, e.g. policy, research, practice and the media. Administrative and political actors have responded to PISA and taken part in discussions about the results (e.g. Pettersson in Internationell kunskapsbedomning som inslag i nationell styrning av skolan. Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2008; Hopmann in European Educational Research Journal 6:109–124, 2007, 2015; Ozga in Fabricating quality in education: data and governance in Europe. Routledge, New York, 2011; Ertl in Oxford Review of Education 32:619–634, 2006; Grek in Journal of Education Policy 24:23–37, 2009).

Education by the Numbers and the Making of Society : The Expertise of International Assessments

International statistical comparisons of nations have become commonplace in the contemporary landscape of education policy and social science. This book engages the emergence of these international ...

Curriculum Code, Arena, and Context: Curriculum and Leadership Research in Sweden

ABSTRACT This article describes the development of the Swedish curriculum-theory tradition with a focus on different curriculum practices, educational message systems, arenas, and curriculum makers. Attention has been paid to different places, spaces, and times in relation to the selection, ordering, and manifestation of knowledge, norms, and values, as well as the management and organization of education. Curriculum and leadership research and changes in Swedish education are described and we introduce the comparative curriculum code as a codification of the contemporary changes in the education system and their consequences for the selection and ordering of knowledge and students.

A Game of Thrones: Organising and Legitimising Knowledge through PISA Research.

This study investigates knowledge structures and scientific communication using bibliometric methods to explore scientific knowledge production and dissemination. The aim is to develop knowledge about this growing field by investigating studies using international large-scale assessment (ILSA) data, with a specific focus on those using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. As international organisations use ILSA to measure, assess and compare the success of national education systems, it is important to study this specific knowledge to understand how it is organised and legitimised within research. The findings show an interchange of legitimisation, where major actors from the USA and other English-speaking and westernised countries determine the academic discourse. Important epistemic cultures for PISA research are identified: the most important of which are situated within psychology and education. These two research environments are epicentres created by patterns of the referrals to and referencing of articles framing the formulation of PISA knowledge. Finally, it is argued that this particular PISA research is self-referential and self-authorising, which raises questions about whether research accountability leads to ‘a game of thrones’, where rivalry going on within the scientific field concerning how and on what grounds ‘facts’ and ‘truths’ are constructed, as a continuing process with no obvious winner.

Codification of Present Swedish Curriculum Processes : Linking Educational Activities over Time and Space

Codification of present Swedish curriculum processes : linking educational activities over time and space