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Politics of Quality in Education Politics of Quality in Education The question of quality has become one of the most important framing factors in education and has been of growing interest to international organisations and national policymakers for decades. Politics of Quality in Education focuses on Brazil, China, and Russia, part of the so-called emerging nations’ BRICS block, and draws on a four-year project to develop a new theoretical and methodological approach. The book builds a comparative, sociohistorical, and transnational understanding of political relations in education, with a particular focus on the policies and practices of quality assurance and evaluation (QAE). Tracking QAE processes from international organisations to individual schools, contributors analyse how QAE changes the dynamics in the roles of state, expertise, and governance. The book demonstrates how national and sub-national actors play a central role in the adaptation, modification, or rejection of transnational policies. Politics of Quality in Education will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students engaged in the study of comparative and international education, as well as educational policy and politics. It should also be essential reading for practitioners and policymakers. Jaakko Kauko is Associate Professor of Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Tampere. His research focuses on the fields of education policy and comparative education. Risto Rinne is Professor of Education, Vice-Dean and Head of the Department of Education and the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE) at the University of Turku, Finland. He is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and has published more than 500 scientific works. Tuomas Takala is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Tampere. His research has focused on the formation and implementation of education policies in developing countries. Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education This is a series that offers a global platform to engage scholars in continuous academic debate on key challenges and the latest thinking on issues in the fast- growing field of international and comparative education. Titles in the series include: Educational Choices, Aspirations and Transitions in Europe Systemic, Institutional and Subjective Constraints Edited by Aina Tarabini and Nicola Ingram Cooperative Education in Asia History, Present and Future Issues Edited by Yasushi Tanaka Testing and Inclusive Schooling International Challenges and Opportunities Edited by Bjørn Hamre, Anne Morin, and Christian Ydesen Vocational Education in the Nordic Countries The Historical Evolution Edited by Svein Michelsen and Marja-Leena Stenström Vocational Education in the Nordic Countries Learning from Diversity Edited by Christian Helms Jørgensen, Ole Johnny Olsen, and Daniel Persson Thunqvist Higher Education and China’s Global Rise A Neo-Tributary Perspective Su-Yan Pan and Joe Tin-Yau Lo For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Rout ledge-Research-in-International-and-Comparative-Education/book-series/ RRICE Politics of Quality in Education A Comparative Study of Brazil, China, and Russia Edited by Jaakko Kauko, Risto Rinne, and Tuomas Takala First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Jaakko Kauko, Risto Rinne, and Tuomas Takala; individual chapters, the contributors The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-55973-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-71230-6 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of tables and figure vii Foreword viii ANTÓNIO NÓVOA Acknowledgements xv List of contributors xvi Biographies xvii 1 Comparing politics of quality in education 1 JAAKKO KAUKO, TUOMAS TAKALA, AND RISTO RINNE 2 Layers of reflectivity in comparative research 18 JAAKKO KAUKO, VERA GORODSKI CENTENO, NELLI PIATTOEVA, HELENA CANDIDO, GALINA GUROVA, ANNA MEDVEDEVA, ÍRIS SANTOS, OLLI SUOMINEN, AND XINGGUO ZHOU 3 Historical paths to shared interest in quality assurance and evaluation 44 OLLI SUOMINEN, VERA GORODSKI CENTENO, GALINA GUROVA, JOHANNA KALLO, AND XINGGUO ZHOU 4 Established and emerging actors in the national political arenas 71 JAAKKO KAUKO, OLLI SUOMINEN, VERA GORODSKI CENTENO, NELLI PIATTOEVA, AND TUOMAS TAKALA 5 Changing expertise and the state 91 RISTO RINNE, XINGGUO ZHOU, JAAKKO KAUKO, ROMUALD NORMAND, ANNA MEDVEDEVA, AND ÍRIS SANTOS vi Contents 6 Governance by data circulation? The production, availability, and use of national large-scale assessment data 115 NELLI PIATTOEVA, VERA GORODSKI CENTENO, OLLI SUOMINEN, AND RISTO RINNE 7 Effects of quality assurance and evaluation on schools’ room for action 137 GALINA GUROVA, HELENA CANDIDO, AND XINGGUO ZHOU 8 Alternative views of the future of quality assurance and evaluation 161 JOHANNA KALLO, TUOMAS TAKALA, VERA GORODSKI CENTENO, AND OLLI SUOMINEN 9 Conclusion 180 JAAKKO KAUKO, RISTO RINNE, AND TUOMAS TAKALA Appendix 1: Interview data and codes 191 Appendix 2: Coding of interviews 195 Appendix 3: Interview guidelines 198 Index 205 Tables and figure Tables 2.1 CADEP framework for analysing QAE in this book 21 2.2 Main themes and goals in the collection and analysis of data 26 9.1 Dynamics in the politics of quality in Brazil, China, and Russia 182 10.1 Number of interviews and interviewees in the BCR project 192 Figure 2.1 Dimensions of the analytical framework (CADEP) and the book’s chapters 40 Foreword Theoretically, Politics of Quality in Education is a very solid and consistent book. Its authors bring new elements to an understanding of one of the central themes in the configuration of education policies in recent decades. Based on a comparative study of three BRICS countries – Brazil, China, and Russia – new perspectives are opened for thinking about and interpreting “how the emphasis on quality has changed the basic conditions in which education takes place” (this book, p. 1). As David Labaree states, in the twenty-first century, the education policy discourse converges on a single overarching goal for education: From the global education reform movement to its policy apparatus in the OECD and its policy police in the PISA testing program, we have seen one goal trump the others . The OECD approach serves to narrow the learning outcomes of schooling and educational knowledge production to whatever is in service to economic development. (2017: pp. 281–282) The argument of the book is developed against this background. The idea of qual- ity in education, as it is circulated throughout the world, is here operationalised as a governance tool. It is clear from the outset that the central issues “for analysing quality in education globally are how quality is connected to transnational flows of knowledge and how it offers a powerful governance tool” (this book, p. 5). The authors reveal an excellent knowledge of the state of the art but above all a rare intellectual sophistication. They do not fall into pre-established theo- retical frameworks which explain everything even before the research is under- taken or into dichotomies which so often close and diminish the interpretation of educational and political issues. On the contrary, throughout the book, we are driven to a systematic prob- lematisation, opening new interpretive paths and new perspectives to consider the political themes of quality in education. Written with elegance and sagacity, the book does not seek to avoid complexity. There are no easy answers but rather an invitation for the reader to subscribe to multiple interwoven interpretations. Foreword ix The authors explain, “Before it is operationally defined, ‘quality in education’ remains abstract and elusive . it is not until it is put into practice, or ‘opera- tionalised’, that it becomes definable” (this book, p. 1). In this sense, they seek to investigate how the operationalisation of quality takes place and the repercus- sions this has on the room for action of the different actors involved in education. They assume the need to take into account, simultaneously, the world’s com- plexity and contingency to understand the political processes in the education arena. Instead of discussing questions about source and target, global and local, convergence and divergence, they are interested in understanding networks, flows, and complex causation. The research is organised around a triangle whose vertices are the political situation, the political possibilities, and the use of political space. Through this scheme, the authors seek to understand the politics
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