Comparative International Testing of Early Childhood Education: The Democratic Deficit and the Case of Portugal

Autor/inn/en	Sousa, Diana; Grey, Sue; Oxley, Laura
Titel	Comparative International Testing of Early Childhood Education: The Democratic Deficit and the Case of Portugal
Quelle	In: Policy Futures in Education, 17 (2019) 1, S.41-58 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Sousa, Diana) ORCID (Oxley, Laura)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1478-2103
DOI	10.1177/1478210318818002
Schlagwörter	Comparative Testing; International Assessment; Early Childhood Education; Democracy; Foreign Countries; Well Being; Discourse Analysis; Achievement Tests; Secondary School Students; International Organizations; Portugal; Program for International Student Assessment + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Early childhood; Education; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Demokratie; Ausland; Well-being; Wellness; Wohlbefinden; Diskursanalyse; Achievement test; Achievement; Testing; Test; Tests; Leistungsbeurteilung; Leistungsüberprüfung; Leistung; Testdurchführung; Testen; Sekundarschüler; International organisation; International organisations; International organization; Internationale Organisation
Abstract	The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has a key role in driving educational discourse and global educational governance. Its comparative 'Programme of International School Assessment' (PISA) has explicitly linked the knowledge and skills of young people with the economic potential of countries. Through the International Early Learning and Child Well-Being Study (IELS), the OECD plans to extend its reach to early childhood education (ECE) by developing metrics to measure 'quality' in ECE. This focus gives weight to discourses centred around ideas of 'what works'. The rhetoric derives from the principles that standards of learning and well-being can be improved by emulating notions of 'best practice' identified through comparative data. This article uses the case of Portugal to illustrate the significant disconnect between the aims and pedagogies of ECE and the increasingly influential de-contextualised discourses concerning ranking, performance and outcomes, as espoused by the OECD IELS project. Using evidence from three diverse Portuguese ECE settings, we illustrate how conceptual understandings of democracy in each school closely reflected the individual school philosophies. We discuss how the dampening of localised realities, for example, through standardisation and de-contextualisation, could lead to a democratic deficit enabled by discourses which displace the purpose, complexity and subjectivity of ECE policy and practice. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01