The elusiveness of the common school in Austria. PISA, politics and the survival of selection in a conservative regime

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the failure of introducing comprehensive schooling in Austria, one of few ‘conservative’ outliers in the European post-war reform trend where early selection survived reform attempts in the 1970s. In particular, the focus is on the most recent attempt to postpone tracking from the age of 10–14 in the wake of Austria’s ‘PISA-shock’ in the 2000s. Based on in-depth process tracing and drawing on interviews and documentary sources this article examines the nuances of contemporary politics of comprehensive schooling reforms, assessing the interplay between PISA and long-standing reform barriers, the ambivalence of political parties in comprehensive schooling reforms and the role of policy feedback effects on broader societal support for reform.

摘要

奥地利是少数在1970年代欧洲战后改革趋势中坚持对教育进行早期筛选的“保守”国家之一，本文探究其综合中学改革之失败情况。具体而言，本文关注奥地利在2000年后受到PISA（国际学生能力测试项目）冲击而将分流年龄由10岁延后至14岁的尝试。通过深度的过程追踪，并结合采访和文献资料，本文探究综合学校改革的当下微妙政治境况，即评估国际学生能力测试项目与长久以来改革障碍之间的相互作用、政治党派在综合学校改革中含糊不清的立场，以及政策反馈之于社会广泛支持改革效应的角色。

KEYWORDS:

• Austria
• secondary education
• tracking
• comprehensive schooling
• selection
• Gymnasium
• education reform
• political parties
• teacher unions
• PISA
• feedback effects

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank all interview partners for sharing their views and insights on education politics in Austria. I’m also grateful to Lindsay Paterson and Sam Baumber for their invaluable feedback and to two anonymousreviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Pultar

Anna Pultar is postdoctoral researcher in education policy at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include the politics of education policy from a comparative perspective, in particular the history of national education debates and the policy preferences and beliefs of political actors around education, inequality and social order. Her current research investigates the educational positions of far right parties.