The impact of international achievement studies on national education policymaking: The case of Slovenia – how many watches do we need?

Abstract

This chapter discusses the influence of international educational studies on knowledge in a general sense. In a theoretical framework, a split between realistic and constructivist theories of knowledge with special regards to global and local knowledge is discussed.

Since Slovenia is a country that is included in a number of different international comparative educational studies and assessments, even more so, it has been participating in these studies continually for the last two decades, the focus is on Slovenian educational policymaking (PM). The chapter for the first time analyzes the impacts on national PM of different international studies and predicts the future Slovenian participation in these studies; therefore, the chapter could be interesting for national and international audiences involved in comparative education research. For the estimation of existing impacts on national PM, semi-structured interviews were used. The findings suggest that international results represent an argumentation for some directly and indirectly curricular and syllabus changes over the years. Furthermore, some of the argumentations for changing the national educational system regarding the international findings are still more declarative; irrespective of experts and policymakers estimations of how great impacts these studies have in Slovenia. Future research on the topic for Slovenian PM in education will need more secondary analysis of collected data from both national and international assessments.

Citation

Klemencic, E. (2010), "The impact of international achievement studies on national education policymaking: The case of Slovenia – how many watches do we need?", Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) The Impact of International Achievement Studies on National Education Policymaking (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 239-266. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000013012