Measuring what we Value or Valuing what we Measure? Globalization, Accountability and the Question of Educational Purpose

Abstract

One of the significant dimensions of the impact of globalisation on educational policy and practice has been the rise of large-scale comparative measurements of the performance of national educational systems. In this paper I argue that rather than that this development has supported and promoted discussions about good education, they have actually replaced normative questions about desirable educational orientations and achievements with technical questions about the effective production of a particular (and often narrow) set of educational outcomes. On the one hand I aim to contribute to the understanding of why this has been the case, and here I particularly highlight a shift in thinking about accountability in education from a substantive and democratic approach to a technical-managerial approach. On the other hand I provide parameters for a more explicit engagement with questions about what is educationally desirable, not in order to specify once and for all what good education is or should be, but in order to facilitate a more sophisticated, nuanced and deliberate discussion about what the parameters of good education in schools, colleges, universities and other educational settings and institutions might be.