Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Globalizing Switzerland by Harmonizing the Cantonal Systems of Education in the Aftermath of PISA

Abstract

Taking the example of the current educational reforms, that is, the harmonization of the Swiss education systems, this chapter engages with the paradoxical character of modern education policy that believes it enhances its agency by referring to the unshakeable basis of their policy, the “crystal-clear” facts or “data,” incorruptibly portraying – in a comparative way – the state of the art of schooling in the respective education systems. It is argued that this enhancement of agency represents more an “illusion of control” rather than real agency, for it assigns de facto decision-taking to the normative theories that are embedded (and hidden) in the instruments designed to provide the “crystal-clear” facts. It also points out that this policy model represents thorough mistrust toward the major bearers of the education systems, the teachers, on two levels: mistrust in teachers’ policy expertise as professionals and mistrust in their teaching. And it argues that the Swiss attempt to harmonize the education systems of the individual cantons is, in fact, an attempt to adjust Swiss education to globally dominant models.