Government, media, and citizens: understanding engagement with PISA in China (2009–2015)

This study explores the multidimensionality of engagements with international large-scale standardised assessments (ILSAs). The objective is to understand how different policy actors—government, media, and citizens—rationalise, report, and perceive China’s PISA participation. First, government archive analysis traces a decade of documents (2005–2015), and the findings show that Shanghai’s initial participation in PISA was rationalised as a policy experiment for learning Western ideas of education governance. Second, media content analysis of two major news outlets indicates that media framing of PISA participation was strategic on timing, intensity, and tone. Third, a public opinion survey yields results which show that low public knowledge of Shanghai’s PISA participation in 2012 is prevalent. Drawing on these findings, this study investigates how the ILSA movement, exemplified by PISA, engages different levels of stakeholders in China.