Sandoval-Hernández, Andrés

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        Citation for published version:Sandoval-Hernández, A 2019, 'Everything Works Somewhere and Nothing Works Everywhere; Context Matters'International Education Blog, pp. 1-3. <https://international-education.blog/en/everything-works-somewhere-and-nothing-works-everywhere-context-matters/>Publication date:2019Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publicationUniversity of BathAlternative formatsIf you require this document in an alternative format, please contact:openaccess@bath.ac.ukGeneral rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediatelyand investigate your claim.Download date: 15. Jul. 2024Everything Works Somewhere and NothingWorks Everywhere; Context mattersAndrés Sandoval-HernándezThe Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of the ed-ucational performance of 15-year-old students organised by the Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The results of the latest roundof PISA will be released in December this year and we will see a lot about it in thenews and other media. Most of the stories are likely to be either about the interna-tional rankings or about ‘what works’ in education. But these are not the stories weshould be focusing on.The PISA rankingsWe will be told things like that country X performed slightly above the OECD aver-age in science and reading and around the OECD average in mathematics. We willbe told that this performance does or does not represent a significant change fromthe scores obtained in 2015. We will also be told that country X performance iscomparable to the performance of countries like Australia, Germany and Ireland, togive an example. All these rankings are, however, just comparisons of raw scores.They do not take into account the context of the societies in which education sys-tems operate. Just to give an example, in 2015, the performance of UK in PISAwas significantly higher than that of Dominican Republic (in all subjects), but wealso know that income per capita1 in the Dominican Republic is almost seven timeslower than in the UK. So, it does not seem to be fair to make raw comparisons of ed-ucation systems when they operate under such different socioeconomic conditions(a good example of comparisons between education systems taking into accountsocioeconomic differences can be found here2).Andrés Sandoval-HernándezUniversity of Bath, e-mail: ash22@bath.ac.uk1 http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD2 https://theconversation.com/which-countries-punch-above-their-weight-in-education-rankings-4969812 Andrés Sandoval-HernándezSo, what works in education?Regarding ‘what works’ in education, the story is not so different. Raw comparisonsof education systems are also not very informative, as PISA can be used to provideevidence to support contradictory claims. Supporters of school autonomy (i.e. prin-cipals and teachers with greater autonomy in managing their schools’ resources)will point out the case of Estonia (ranked 3rd in science in PISA 2015) to claimthis is a good practice. On the other hand, detractors of the same kind of policieswill point out Singapore (ranked 1st in science, reading and maths, PISA 2015) tosay the opposite (see Figure II.4.3 of the PISA 2015 Results3). The results of PISA2015 can also provide evidence to say that, in schools with smaller classes, studentstend to perform better (Finland has classes with less than 20 students on averageand ranked 5th in science), but they can also provide evidence to claim the opposite(Japan has classes with more than 35 students on average and ranked 2nd in science)(see Figure II.6.16 of the PISA 2015 Results).Context mattersSo, the stories we should be focusing on must go beyond simplistic comparisons ofeducation systems. ‘How did we rank?’ or ‘what works?’ are not the right questionsto be answered by analysing PISA. This is because, as shown above, almost everypolicy works somewhere and no policy works everywhere. This is not a limitationof the PISA data but of the analyses and interpretations that we make of it (besidesstudent achievement, PISA collects a wealth of contextual information about stu-dents, teachers, schools and countries). Our analyses must not only be about whatpolicies or practices work but about under which conditions these policies or prac-tices are likely to work. In educational research, everything is about the context andtherefore education systems cannot be understood without considering the contextof the societies in which they operate.This text has been posted on the blog international-education.blog and it isavailable in different languages on international-education.blogSandoval-Hernández, A. (2019). Everything Works Somewhere and NothingWorks Everywhere; Context Matters. Retrieved from https://international-education.blog/en/2019/10/08/everything-works-somewhere-and-nothing-works-everywhere-context-matters/.The blog International-Education.Blog is an outcome of the project OCCAM.3 http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-volume-ii-9789264267510-en.htmEverything Works Somewhere and Nothing Works Everywhere; Context matters 3This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grantagreement No. 76500.

Everything Works Somewhere and Nothing Works Everywhere; Context Matters

        Citation for published version:Sandoval-Hernández, A 2019, 'Everything Works Somewhere and Nothing Works Everywhere; Context Matters'International Education Blog, pp. 1-3. <https://international-education.blog/en/everything-works-somewhere-and-nothing-works-everywhere-context-matters/>Publication date:2019Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publicationUniversity of BathAlternative formatsIf you require this document in an alternative format, please contact:openaccess@bath.ac.ukGeneral rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediatelyand investigate your claim.Download date: 18. Sep. 2021Everything Works Somewhere and NothingWorks Everywhere; Context mattersAndrés Sandoval-HernándezThe Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of the ed-ucational performance of 15-year-old students organised by the Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The results of the latest roundof PISA will be released in December this year and we will see a lot about it in thenews and other media. Most of the stories are likely to be either about the interna-tional rankings or about ‘what works’ in education. But these are not the stories weshould be focusing on.The PISA rankingsWe will be told things like that country X performed slightly above the OECD aver-age in science and reading and around the OECD average in mathematics. We willbe told that this performance does or does not represent a significant change fromthe scores obtained in 2015. We will also be told that country X performance iscomparable to the performance of countries like Australia, Germany and Ireland, togive an example. All these rankings are, however, just comparisons of raw scores.They do not take into account the context of the societies in which education sys-tems operate. Just to give an example, in 2015, the performance of UK in PISAwas significantly higher than that of Dominican Republic (in all subjects), but wealso know that income per capita1 in the Dominican Republic is almost seven timeslower than in the UK. So, it does not seem to be fair to make raw comparisons of ed-ucation systems when they operate under such different socioeconomic conditions(a good example of comparisons between education systems taking into accountsocioeconomic differences can be found here2).Andrés Sandoval-HernándezUniversity of Bath, e-mail: ash22@bath.ac.uk1 http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD2 https://theconversation.com/which-countries-punch-above-their-weight-in-education-rankings-4969812 Andrés Sandoval-HernándezSo, what works in education?Regarding ‘what works’ in education, the story is not so different. Raw comparisonsof education systems are also not very informative, as PISA can be used to provideevidence to support contradictory claims. Supporters of school autonomy (i.e. prin-cipals and teachers with greater autonomy in managing their schools’ resources)will point out the case of Estonia (ranked 3rd in science in PISA 2015) to claimthis is a good practice. On the other hand, detractors of the same kind of policieswill point out Singapore (ranked 1st in science, reading and maths, PISA 2015) tosay the opposite (see Figure II.4.3 of the PISA 2015 Results3). The results of PISA2015 can also provide evidence to say that, in schools with smaller classes, studentstend to perform better (Finland has classes with less than 20 students on averageand ranked 5th in science), but they can also provide evidence to claim the opposite(Japan has classes with more than 35 students on average and ranked 2nd in science)(see Figure II.6.16 of the PISA 2015 Results).Context mattersSo, the stories we should be focusing on must go beyond simplistic comparisons ofeducation systems. ‘How did we rank?’ or ‘what works?’ are not the right questionsto be answered by analysing PISA. This is because, as shown above, almost everypolicy works somewhere and no policy works everywhere. This is not a limitationof the PISA data but of the analyses and interpretations that we make of it (besidesstudent achievement, PISA collects a wealth of contextual information about stu-dents, teachers, schools and countries). Our analyses must not only be about whatpolicies or practices work but about under which conditions these policies or prac-tices are likely to work. In educational research, everything is about the context andtherefore education systems cannot be understood without considering the contextof the societies in which they operate.This text has been posted on the blog international-education.blog and it isavailable in different languages on international-education.blogSandoval-Hernández, A. (2019). Everything Works Somewhere and NothingWorks Everywhere; Context Matters. Retrieved from https://international-education.blog/en/2019/10/08/everything-works-somewhere-and-nothing-works-everywhere-context-matters/.The blog International-Education.Blog is an outcome of the project OCCAM.3 http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-volume-ii-9789264267510-en.htmEverything Works Somewhere and Nothing Works Everywhere; Context matters 3This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grantagreement No. 76500.

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Everything Works Somewhere and Nothing Works Everywhere; Context Matters

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