Browsing by Author "Hyökki, Riina"

This master’s thesis examines German teachers’ initial experience of the first PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study. German pupils’ low PISA scores caused a public and political shock in German educational discussion at the beginning of the 2000s. As a case example, teachers in the largest union of educational workers in Germany, the Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (GEW) are scrutinised using the GEW’s membership magazine, Erziehung und Wissenschaft (E&W) as research material. Examining teachers as a case group provides deepening insights into the extent to which PISA affected the educational self-understanding in Germany. The objective is to contribute to the understanding of how international comparative studies influence educational discourse in a national context. Educational researchers have criticised the acceptance of PISA as an indicator of success between school systems and the extent it affects educational policy, drawing attention to PISA’s institutional background as initiated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In the light of the criticism, the analysis focuses on the GEW actors’ perception of PISA as an institution. The research material is analysed from the perspective of history of ideas and policy analysis with an attempt to trace the experiences of the various actors within the GEW. Through Reinhard Koselleck’s concepts of space of experience and horizon of expectations, the actors’ conceptualisation of their past, present and future is elucidated. Carol Bacchi’s analytic tool for studying problem representations by probing them with questions guides the methodological approach. The analysis shows that the PISA results were seen to reveal the problems of German education and to indicate the successful educational policy of the high-ranking countries. The PISA discussion concentrated on arguing against certain structural and cultural aspects of German education that were perceived to be problematic. Although the research material illustrated some multiplicity of political opinion within the organisation, the GEW’s resistance to the tripartite German school system became a prominent message in the magazine. The high PISA scores in other countries thus functioned as arguments for comprehensive schooling. Additionally, teachers’ attitudes and values were depicted as the problems of German education compared to successful countries. These discourses portrayed Germany to be far behind in international educational development. Consequently, other countries were often viewed as a homogeneous group. German education was likewise treated as an entity, despite the federal structure of the German school system. Attention was, therefore, hardly paid to the contextual factors behind each country’s educational system. Rather, the ranking positions were seen to indicate the success or failure of the system. Based on the E&W material analysed in this thesis, the institutional background of PISA was not discussed within the GEW. It is noteworthy that although free trade and market-orientation were perceived to threaten public education, PISA and the OECD were not discussed in this context. Moreover, German educational tradition, known as Bildung, was not considered to be in conflict with the OECD’s conceptualisation of education, although this has caused criticism among many German educationists. There was a selective tendency of how arguments were framed with PISA and what was considered successful. The assumptions and silences conveyed a tone of absolute certainty regarding what ought to result from PISA; it was represented as scientific evidence contrasting the perceived ideological policymaking in Germany. Despite the rigid dichotomies in the arguments, the assertions surrounding PISA came to reflect the ambiguity of the argumentation that previous research has also pointed out in the PISA discourses. The assertions and beliefs concerning PISA were not eventually coherent, yet the contradictions were not discussed in the magazine. The analysis of the E&W material demonstrates a typical example of taking PISA as a given authority and using the assessment results to legitimise political arguments in national debates. The results support previous concerns regarding the need for further consideration of the political function and influence of large-scale educational assessments.