Abstract
This study contributed to the understanding of international assessment from a critical perspective; in particular it discussed how Shanghai students’ performance in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was related to its social context. We used a critical discourse analysis approach to identify discourses underlying the students’ performance, as well as how these discourses were interdependent and how they conflicted and competed with each other. Our analysis of texts produced by policy makers, educators, and public media both in the United States and China revealed that nationalism, knowledge economy, and neoliberalism were major underlying discourses. The study also showed that media reports tended to focus on the comparison of PISA scores of different countries and oversimplified the ranking, which might impede discussions of problems in the educational systems of these countries.
Huang, H., & Placier, P. (accepted). A critical discourse analysis of media coverage of Shanghai students’ performance in 2009 program for international student assessment. International Journal of Educational Reform.