Expert Moves: International Comparative Testing and the Rise of Expertocracy

Through a sociological analysis of the knowledge and actors that have become central to international assessments, the paper focuses on the processes that influence the production of shared narratives and agendas, adopting the position that their existence is not organic, but rather the product of undertakings that often fabricate and manage, rather than strive for ‘real’ consensus. The paper suggests that limiting the analysis to the role of travel and exchanges of experts and policy-makers in the making of policy is, in fact, the construction of an ‘ideal-type’ of an international policy making world. Recent research on these encounters suggests that one needs to focus on actors’ conflict and struggles, rather than processes of ‘collective puzzling’ (Heclo 1974). Using Bourdieu’s field theory, as well as the concept of ‘political work’, the paper shows the ways that international comparative testing in the field of education has not only offered policy makers with much needed data to govern, but has in fact almost fused the realms of knowledge and policy; expertise and the selling of undisputed, universal policy solutions have now drifted into one single entity and function.