This paper aims to explore the relationships between educational attainment as expressed in PISA scores and several socio-economic and political variables some of which are sub-indices of Human Development Index. The correlation analysis reveals that there are highly significant associations between educational attainment and civil liberties,…

This article examines a Confucian conception of competence and its corresponding response to the competencies agenda that underpins international large-scale assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It is argued that standardised transnational assessments are undergirded by a technical rationality that…

It is now five years since the introduction of the current National Curriculum for English in England; it is just over 50 years since the Dartmouth Conference drew together American and English educationalists. This paper reports on a hermeneutic study that presents voices from the field of English teaching in England. It asks questions of today's…