Xavier Pons

Going beyond the 'PISA Shock' Discourse: an analysis of the cognitive reception of PISA in six European countries, 2001-2008

The aim of this article is to open discussion by analysing the cognitive reception of PISA in six European countries which were studied in the European collective research project KNOWandPOL (Knowledge and Policy in Education and Health Sectors). Reception does not mean here a simple vertical transmission of messages from the international level to the national one, but a cognitive activity when messages are constantly accepted, refused or renegotiated by actors. The adjective ‘cognitive’ means that the focus is on the cognitive aspects of this constant process of redefinition, trying to understand what kind of knowledge actors talking about PISA in the public debate mobilise, in which context and for what reasons. To do so, the author proposes a specific theoretical framework which largely draws on some concepts and theoretical tools from the sociology of translation and their adaptation in policy analysis).

Tracing the French Policy PISA Debate: A Policy Configuration Approach.

This article traces the evolution of the French policy PISA debate from 2001 to 2014 by analysing the results of two original qualitative researches. Theoretically, this debate is the outcome of specific policy configurations, which predetermine its scope, content and effectiveness. These configurations are themselves described through their political, institutional, professional and cognitive dimensions. Thus, three configurations are highlighted, all of which favour different public discourses: the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is seen as a topic only interesting to insiders (2001–2004), then as a politicised ranking (2005–2010) and, finally, as a tool purely for communication (2010–2014). The article shows that the major effect of PISA on the French education policy debate was to confirm and legitimate pre-existing opinions and policy stances, and that PISA was progressively scooped out from its statistical content.

The Science from the State: The Production of Data by the Statisticians of the French Ministry of Education, 1957–2007

This article analyses the institutionalisation of the production of statistical data by the central administration of the French ministry of education from 1957 to 2007. It shows that beyond the necessary technical and methodological evolutions, this institutionalisation clearly depended on political arbitrations, administrative struggles and professional orientations. Using some theoretical approaches in political science, it interprets this process as the progressive and non-linear development of a specific ‘state science’. On the basis of materials collected during a four-year qualitative research study (through 32 interviews, several data sets of documents, consultation of archives, and a questionnaire), it highlights first the main cognitive and transversal properties of this specific state body of knowledge. It describes then its historical concrete forms which varied according to the policy configurations. The latter are studied through four main variables: the formal organisation of the statistical production; the statistical methods, techniques and tools implemented; the composition of the central office; and the main professional cleavages among the members of this office.

The Turn and the Paths—School External Evaluation in England, France and Switzerland: A Sociological Approach

Based on a comparison of school external evaluation processes in three countries (England, France and Switzerland), this article questions the possible quality turn in the governance of European educational systems. Using materials collected through qualitative methods (91 interviews, surveys of literature and observations) during a sociological and exploratory research, it shows that a relatively similar shift to a new set of policies and regulation tools may have a very different political meaning and give birth to very different policy configurations from one educational system to another. It also reveals that in each country references to foreign evidence are relatively rare and highly selective, depending on the domestic political circumstances, interests and frames of analysis of policy actors. Instead of invalidating the theory of a quality turn, the article concludes that the paths taken by each educational system strongly predetermine the forms, stakes and scope of this quality turn and that the main scientific challenge is to think about these two phenomena together.