Abstract
This PhD thesis consists of four studies based on the analysis of comparability in International Large Scale Assessments (ILSAs). These studies are embedded into analyses utilising secondary data from ILSAs, mainly focusing on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS).Two of the main criticisms of ILSAs like PISA and TALIS are, on the one hand, the lack of theoretical foundations to support the construction of scales such as socioeconomic status; and on the other, the alleged lack of comparability of these scales across countries. This PhD thesis addresses these two criticisms by applying Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory to the construction of family socioeconomic status and cultural capital scales with PISA data, and instructional leadership concept developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2019a) and distributed leadership concepts developed by Harris et al. (2007) in the construction of leadership scales. Furthermore, this thesis evaluates the comparability of those scales by using measurement invariance models.
In paper I, I try to address the first criticism (lack of theory of PISA’s constructs). More specifically, I focussed on the cultural capital of Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory. This study employs Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory to examine the extent to which students’ cultural capital is related to teacher-student interaction in the context of student feedback. In paper II, a socioeconomic background scale was created based on Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory, which differentiates economic, cultural, and social capital. Additionally, measurement invariance of this construct was tested across countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA, 2015). Paper III examines the uniformity of cross-cultural model-data for principal school leadership scale using the framework and data supplied by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018. Lastly, paper IV employs an alignment optimisation approach to compare the latent means of distributed leadership, as perceived by principals, across 40 countries, using data from the TALIS 2018.
Overall, the thesis contributes to refining the theoretical and practical frameworks of ILSAs by addressing crucial aspects of theory formulation and cross-cultural comparability. The findings suggest that while there are substantial challenges in achieving full comparability, careful theoretical grounding and sophisticated analytical approaches can enhance the validity and applicability of ILSA data, offering significant implications for global educational research and policy.
| Date of Award | 26 Jun 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
|
| Supervisor | Andres Sandoval Hernandez (Supervisor) & Hugh Lauder (Supervisor) |