CARVALHO LUÍS MIGUEL

University of Lisbon – Institute of Education

Beyond interest and limits of international comparison of performances: performances: fabrication and circulation of «knowledge for policy»

This paper discusses ‘international comparison of performances’ within a perspective that brings together the issues of ‘making knowledge for policy’, ‘soft regulation’ and the States’ trust on international expert organizations. Focusing OECD’s PISA, the paper analyses the Programme as a 'knowledge-policy’ tool – an instrument that, by means of multiple practices (inquiry, publication, and organization), brings to the fore specific interpretations concerning ‘educational reality’ and ‘relevant educational knowledge’, and scripts for ‘appropriate policy-making’.

The paper follows two complementary lines of thought for studying ‘international comparison of performances’ in times of transnational governance and when knowledge on ‘what works’ is so extensively called upon to legitimate (European and/or national) educational policies and State restructuring. One is the idea of observing knowledge-policy tools as objects/processes that have to perform - and be recognized as exhibiting – the qualities of credibility and contextuality. The other is the approach of such tools as objects/processes in which cognitive and social-organizational features merge - that is, to observe as articulated matters: the definitions on what counts as educational knowledge and on the ways education should be governed; and the mechanisms of creating commitment and cooperation between educational agencies across national borders, and of guaranteeing the resources (informational, financial, human) required for the making of ‘monopolies of expertise’ in particular educational issues.

Starting with a review of past and ongoing debates concerning the interests and limits of ‘international comparison of performances’ the paper subsequently inscribes the core elements of PISA ‘self-presentation’ (e.g., performance indicators, monitoring, policy learning, collaboration on a global scale) within the creation of knowledge-policy networks on the orbit of an international expert organisation. Then, it gives attention to cultural and organizational dimensions of PISA, in order to understand its current capability to connect different social worlds (including governments, bureaucracies, OECD staff, universities, private research institutes, experts, etc.) as well as to assemble the varied knowledge and ideas that inhabit them.