Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Through the growing expansion of a set of large-scale international tests, a mechanism for the global regulation of educational systems has been established, in an increasingly solid connection with national governments and with the national public spheres, uniforming the notions of educational quality. Such a global device exercises a soft power that operates flexibly through three central international organizations –the IAE, the OECD, and Unesco– interconnected among themselves and loosely linked to multiple international organisms and networks of experts. This study analyzes the characteristics of this multipolar network, its internal connections and the way of articulation with a peripheral country: Chile. Regarding the latter, we study: (1) the connection procedures, (2) the reception through time in the mass media of the operation and results of international tests, and (3) their effects on the education system national through the decisions of the educational institutions. It is remarkable the high diffusion and public recognition achieved by the PISA and TIMSS tests and the comparative smaller visibility obtained by the Unesco’s Latin American testing. The main effects have been both direct in the curriculum and indirect through various transformations generated by international assessment in the national evaluation system, which translates that global influence. The research uses the actor-network theory and, for the collection of information, it is based on interviews with key actors, documentary analysis, and press analysis regarding the period of application of these tests, since the late 1990s.