2 - Not everything that moves must converge: evidence from global policy and practice on performance-based accountability

Summary

Introduction

Policy convergence is an often- assumed outcome of transnational policy movement. The policy convergence thesis can be summarized in that, as a result of globalization pressures and the increasing role of international organizations in policy activities, systems tend to develop “similarities in structures, processes and performance” (Bennett, 1991, p 215). Yet, in recent years, different scholars have drawn attention to the limitations of conventional approaches to convergence and to the need to unpack and critically interrogate the assumptions that inform this line of inquiry. Some scholars have thus advanced towards a multidimensional understanding of convergence, going beyond the policy adoption stage and paying greater attention to local implementation and enactment dynamics. Others have turned to the study of divergence patterns in an attempt to identify those points of mediation that explain different responses to common pressures. It is thus possible to document a shift in emphasis, from a focus on convergence patterns to an emphasis on policy variation and its causes.

The global spread of performance- based accountability (PBA) offers an opportunity to engage in these debates in an empirically informed manner. Indeed, PBA has acquired so- called global status (see Steiner- Khamsi, 2004) in education reform agendas, with most middle- and high- income countries adopting national large- scale assessments with the purpose of measuring academic performance and making schools more accountable (Sahlberg, 2016). However, there is limited clarity as to whether the expansion of PBA can truly be equated to the advancement of a “world testing culture” or to the transition into a single, universal accountability regime. Different scholars have drawn attention to the heterogeneity of PBA regimes and practices in place, and to the uneven level of penetration of national assessments and accountability instruments in the daily life of schools. Nonetheless, the sources of variation behind such heterogeneity remain largely understudied.

In this chapter, we aim to overcome some of these limitations by interrogating the convergence thesis in relation to the policy implementation stage, based on a deductive design oriented at assessing the impact of theoretically plausible sources of variation. We depart from the premise that, despite the international expansion of PBA, its actual implementation in schools varies significantly across different countries.