PISA’s colonialism: Success, money, and the eclipse of education

Abstract

This article provides a critical analysis of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) based on an examination of the OECD’s public documents, including publications, webpages, and videos. Based on this analysis, I argue that PISA is not an assessment tool but rather an all-encompassing framework that intends to govern education and schooling worldwide. PISA, de facto, allows a monopoly on the right to establish who is well prepared for life, who is well prepared for society, and who can achieve success. Far from being only an assessment tool, PISA is a life brand. In a strong (although hidden) chain, the OECD identifies education with learning, learning with assessment, and assessment with PISA’s test. Thus, PISA, in the OECD’s opinion, signifies education. The OECD – at the very heart of its colonialist nature – expropriates culture and knowledge from subjects, denying their legitimacy and imposing the OECD’s own univocal logic. Under the aegis of objectivity, PISA manifests a clear ideology and situates education in a well-defined value square: money, success, evidence, and competition. This situation raises substantial doubts concerning a tool that claims to be “a mirror” of education.