at each step there is research evidence questioning these diagnoses. We conclude
that the most socially just way forward is to rework the prevailing logic of TE by
shifting the focus to teachers’capabilities (Nussbaum 2011 ).
- Students are underperforming
Recent years have seen the emergence of‘PISA shock’(Ertl 2006 ): the feeling
among some OECD countries that they are falling behind the rest of the world in
student achievement, as measured by theProgramme for International Student
Assessment(PISA) and other testing regimes. Christopher Pyne (former Australian
Education Minister)^2 expressed his own PISA shock in the wake of the results
released in late 2013, which he described as:
the worst for Australia since testing began and shows that we are falling further behind our
regional neighbours...Australia has lost more ground to other participating countries since
the last test in PISA 2009....we have dropped fromfifteenth to nineteenth in mathematical
literacy, tenth to sixteenth in scientific literacy and nineteenth to fourteenth in reading
literacy. (Pyne 2013 )TEMAG in Australia reiterated these data a year later in its review of TE:“The
declining performance of Australian students in international testing has recently
driven increasing community debate about the quality of teaching”(2014b: 2). UK
Prime Minister David Cameron and his then coalition partner and deputy Nick
Clegg expressed similar dismay at the performance and global position of
England’s school students, using this as a justification for reform:“The only way
we can catch up, and have the world-class schools our children deserve, is by
learning the lessons of other countries’success”(Cameron and Clegg 2010 : 3).
For Pyne, the PISA lesson for Australia is that“it matters more which teacher
you are allocated as opposed to which school you attend”, thus playing down the
influence of socio-economic context in student achievement despite PISA and other
data highlighting the growing tail of low achievement among low SES students
(OECD 2013 ). PISA shock in Australia has“generated a narrative of decline in
recent policy debate, particularly in relation to Australia being outperformed by its
Asian neighbours”(Sellar and Lingard 2013 : 478). Comparison with‘reference
societies’—most notably Shanghai, Singapore, Korea and Japan—in which PISA
results are strong, has led to“the use of policies in other systems to justify and
legitimate the necessity of domestic reform”(Sellar and Lingard 2013 : 467).
And yet for all of the faith placed in PISA results as a basis for reform, much of
the research literature (e.g. Gorur 2015 ; Grek 2009 ; Sellar and Lingard 2013 ) has
shown that PISA (and similar testing regimes) provides a questionable rationale for
shaping policy. For example, PISA results are contextually dependent and thus
‘lessons’from high performing nations or regions cannot be easily transferred
(^2) In September 2015, there was a leadership coup in Australia within the ruling Liberal/National
coalition of parties, resulting in a change in Australia’s Prime Minister and members of the cabinet.
Although different individuals now occupy the positions of Prime Minister and Minister for
Education, the Government’s education policies and sentiment remain unchanged.
35 The Prevailing Logic of Teacher Education... 523