Dire Straits - Education Reforms: ideology, vested interests and evidence

Dire Straits-Education Reforms is an important and accessible text that addresses critical questions in comparative education policy: what does evidence tell us about education reform(s), and why are they so difficult to implement, yet easy to reverse?

To answer these questions, the book appraises contemporary evidence regarding policy and student performance, but also includes an analysis of how ideology, politics, and reform efforts interact with one another. The discussion is then enriched by the authors’ inside story of their own experiences as reformist policymakers (Chapter 6). From my own experience as an educational scholar in Malaysia, I suspect that many of the book’s insights will resonate with, as well as challenge and surprise interested readers.

The book is an engaging read, achieving that oft-elusive balance between (academic) rigour and accessibility. The authors begin by addressing foundational topics crucial to framing practical discussions of education: these are easy to gloss over, but if unaddressed, may lead to incoherent policy and clashing frames of reference. Chapter 1 discusses the functions and roles of modern education systems, covering their origins and social function(s), and linking these to recent ideas and trends, including knowledge societies, digitalisation and the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 2 on the relationship between education and ideology, so essential to enhancing discussions on the relationship between politics and education. However, I felt that I benefited most from Chapter 3, on the governance of education systems, where the authors’ close analysis of governance arrangements—the distribution of power and responsibilities between levels of government, financial incentives, etc.—was eye-opening and incisive. In particular, I appreciated the authors’ nuanced intervention in the centralising vs. decentralising education debate, which will no doubt be of interest to many.

In Chapters 4 and 5, the authors dive deep into International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSA), their methodologies and how governments have responded to them. In doing so, the authors seek to correct some perceived misconceptions about “best practices” which have been recommended on the back of these ILSAs. Chapter 4 discusses PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment), TIMMS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), offering a nuanced assessment of these programmes, including their usefulness and (often-unaddressed) limitations. The discussion is technical yet extensive, addressing policies such as grade repetition, ability grouping, class size and school autonomy. Especially with respect to PISA, the authors argue that supposed good practices are highly context-dependent and that, therefore, some PISA-backed recommendations do not necessarily succeed in new contexts.

Chapter 5 continues in a similar myth-busting vein, critiquing the Eurocentrism with which ILSA findings have been interpreted when deriving policy recommendations from high-performers like Finland, Singapore and South Korea. This is followed by a brief excursus of other salient datapoints offered by China, Vietnam and Latin America. In the second half of the chapter, the authors address the phenomenon of “PISA shock” and critically appraise policy responses to disappointing results (Germany, Denmark and Japan). These are compared to European countries whose results have in fact improved and how these may be interpreted (Poland, Portugal and Estonia), and the case of Spain where PISA shock did not lead to a policy reaction.

Chapter 6 then allows the reader to view the task of reform through the prism of front-line policymaking. While framed as the authors’ personal anecdote, this chapter nonetheless vividly illustrates the complex interplay between politics and policy, including the roles of political parties, the media and PISA. It is a sobering account of the political realities of education reform, conflicts of (vested) interests, and the questionable role of non-state actors like PISA. Chapter 7 offers strong concluding remarks about the political realities of education reform, and an urgent call to action for educationists to pursue evidence-based policies while being cognizant about their political costs.

All in all, the book has both depth and breadth, and accomplishes much in a single volume. Having said that, readers should be aware that the arguments assume a fairly unidimensional view of educational quality, whose “measures … are quite straightforward (student performance)” (p. 288). Others, myself included, would argue that desirable educational outcomes are often multiple and sometimes in tension (Blazar & Pollard, 2023); as such, definitions are not that straightforward, and are subject to both empirical and ideological debate. This is, however, a concern that can be bracketed out at this level of analysis and does not invalidate the central planks of the authors’ argument. The call for context-sensitive educational policy, in particular, should be amplified (c.f. Tiong, 2019). Dire Straits deserves a wide readership, particularly with educationists outside academia, and is essential reading for university courses in comparative education and education policy.