The inaugural seminar series of the Laboratory of International Assessment explored ‘The potentials, politics and practices of international assessments’.
Funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, this international two year series (2014 – 2016) brough academic researchers, testing agencies and the end-users of international assessments together – including policy makers, teachers, journalists, and civil society organisations.
The aim of the series was to provide rigorous and in-depth debate on international assessment methodology and key policy issues surrounding international testing, to create new critical perspectives on their role in education practice and policy.
The objectives of the seminar series were – to act as a vehicle for academic enquiry into international educational assessments; – to develop an agenda for international assessment studies as a field of academic research and publication; and – to build an international network of researchers and practitioners around a set of common interests and concerns. The themes for the seminars were:
- Education Governance and International assessments
- International Assessment and International Convergence of Educational Reforms
- The Challenges of Diversity
- The Production of Data in International Assessment
- The Politics of Reception – Media, Policy and Public Knowledge and Opinion.
- The Futures and Promises of International Assessment
The series of six seminars took place at the University of Edinburgh, Columbia Teachers College in New York, the University of the Pacific in Lima, University of East Anglia in Norwich, Lancaster University and Humboldt University, Berlin.
The video recordings of the seminar presentations are on the videos page.
