THE ADHERENCE OF NEWSPAPERS TO PISA’S CLASSIFICATION LOGIC (OECD)

Throughout the 1990s, several countries sought to develop ways of quantifying learning in accordance with the guidelines of the "World Declaration on Education for All", which took place in Jomtien (Thailand). The document assumed as a goal of equity the guarantee of a "minimum standard of learning quality" for all, understanding that educational opportunities would only translate into "effective development" when "people learn in fact, that is, they acquire useful knowledge, reasoning skills, skills and values" (Unesco, 1998, p. 4). At this point, what stands out is the fact that achieving this goal required measuring learning, so that the document pointed to the commitment of countries to define, "in educational programs, the desirable levels of knowledge acquisition and implement performance evaluation systems" (Unesco, 1998, p. 4). However, it is clear that the initiative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to create an international indicator of quality in education in 2000 represented an important culmination point in this process. This is the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), an international evaluation, on a large scale, which seeks to quantify the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems, focusing on reading, mathematics and sciences. The test is applied every three years to a sample of 15-year-old students from OECD member countries and invited countries and economies and aims to assess "how much students close to completing compulsory education have acquired knowledge and skills essential for full participation in modern societies" (OECD, 2010, p. 18). Several authors, however, have pointed out problems and limits of this evaluation (Guérin-Pace and Blum, 1999; Esteban, 2008; Affonso, 2009; Popkewitz, 2011; among others). In the first year of Pisa, in 2000, a sample of 265,000 students from 32 countries was included in the evaluation. In 2022, there were 690,000 participants representing approximately 29 million 15-year-old students from 81 countries and economies. Brazil and Canada participated in all editions. The analysis presented in this work refers to the dissemination of the results of Pisa in two newspapers of daily circulation directed to a large public. One of the newspapers is Folha de S.Paulo, created in 1921, published regularly since then in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, read by elites and recognized as one of the most influential newspapers in the country (Mota e Capelato, 1982). The other newspaper is Le Devoir, created in 1910, published in Montreal, Canada, read by elites, is one of the important newspapers of the province of Quebec (Dumont-Blanchet, 2012). The search for articles was made in digitized collections for the period between 2000, year of creation of Pisa, and 2023, year prior to the survey. In the case of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the search was made on the database provided to subscribers by the newspaper itself, which contains all the volumes fully scanned (corresponding to the printed form). The search strategy was to associate the terms "Pisa" and "OECD" and this resulted in 202 occurrences. After the reading of each of the titles, in order to exclude those that were not related to the evaluation carried out by the OECD, 184 articles remained. Among them, there are short calls on the first page, through opinion texts and newspaper editorials to detailed reports on the performance of the tests and the results of Brazilian students. For the newspaper Le Devoir, the resource used was the search in the journal database Eureka, which provides the transcription of articles from Quebecois and Canadian newspapers. The search strategy was to request articles that presented the term "Pisa" in the title or introduction, which resulted in 96 occurrences. After screening, there were 94 articles. Given the characteristics of the newspaper, there are less recurring reports and more frequent opinion articles on the subject. The analysis of the selected articles allowed to identify that there are more similarities between the two newspapers than differences, although the performances of Brazil and Canada in Pisa are practically opposite. Canada has always been among the first positions in the ranking of Brazil, always among the last. One of the similarities is precisely the fact that in both journals the classification logic proposed by the OECD is assumed with centrality. In fact, the journalistic articles go even further than the ranking of countries and economies published in the report of each edition of PISA by creating and disseminating other comparisons and hierarchies. AFONSO, A. J. Nem tudo o que conta em educação é mensurável ou comparável. Crítica à accountability baseada em testes estandardizados e rankings escolares. Revista Lusófona de Educação, n. 13, p. 13-29, 2009. DUMONT-BLANCHET, A. Comment les médias ont analysé les propositions politiques et éconimiques pour surmonter la crise économique 2008-2009: les cas de trois quitidiens montréalais, Le Journal de Montréal, La Presse et Le Devoir. Memoire de Maîtrise en Communication, Université du Quebec à Montréal, Montréal, 2012. ESTEBAN, M. T. Silenciar a polissemia e invisibilizar os sujeitos: indagações ao discurso sobre a qualidade da educação. Revista Portuguesa de Educação, v. 21, n. 1, p. 5-31, 2008. GUÉRIN-PACE, F.; BLUM, A. L'illusion comparative. Les logiques d'élaboration et d'utilisation d'une enquête internationale sur l'illettrisme. Population, 54? année, n. 2, p. 271-302, 1999. MOTA, C. G.; CAPELATO, M. H. História da Folha de São Paulo (1921-1981). São Paulo: IMPRES, 1982. OECD. PISA 2009 results: what students know and can do – Student performance in reading, mathematics and science (Volume 1), 2010. OECD. PISA 2015 – Results in focus, 2018. POPKEWITZ, T. PISA: numbers, standardizing conduct, and the alchemy of school subjects. In: M. A. Pereyra; H.-G. Kotthoff; R. Cowen (eds.). PISA under examination: changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools. Sense Publishers, 2011. p. 31-46. UNESCO. Declaração Mundial sobre Educação para Todos: satisfação das necessidades básicas de aprendizagem (Jomtien, 1990). Paris: Unesco, 1998.