The discourse of international standard-setting: PISA tests and Norway, a critical discourse analysis

Abstract

Employing a critical discourse analysis, this study considers three documents from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) assessing challenges related to the development of skills and educational outcomes in the triennial PISA-tests for fifteen-year-olds in Norway. It is argued that the language in the OECD documents secretes a particular commonsensical and naturalized (Gramsci) discourse that conceals the OECD’s neoliberal machinations and legitimates unequal power relations. The study queries the legitimacy of an undemocratic organization’s growing encroachment and influence in shaping educational policy in an egalitarian country ruled by a Conservative coalition in the last six years.