Basic Education in Brazil, China and Russia (BCR)

ARCHIVED: Transnational Dynamics in Quality Assurance and  Evaluation Politics of Basic Education in Brazil, China and Russia (BCR) 2014–2017

The project has moved to the University of Tampere on 1 May 2016. You may browse this page as an archive page for the project and the new page can be found from http://www.uta.fi/edu/en/research/projects/evalpolitics.html.

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Research consortium partners:

Associated Centres of Excellence:

Consortium organisation:

    • Helsinki team (Brazil): Dr. Jaakko Kauko (consortium leader), Postdoctoral Researcher Vera Centeno, Research fellow Helena Candido, Professor Hannu Simola
    • Tampere team (Russia): Professor Tuomas Takala, Post-doctoral Researcher Nelli Piattoeva, Research fellow Galina Gurova
    • Turku team (China): Professor Risto Rinne, Post-doctoral Researcher Johanna Kallo, Research fellow Olli Suominen, Research fellow Zhou Xingguo

Collaborating Professors:

    • Prof. Eneida Shiroma, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil
    • Prof. Viktor Bolotov, Russian Academy of Education, Russia
    • Assoc. Prof. Liu Min, Beijing Normal University, China

Consortium activities:

    • Seminar in Helsinki, Finland, 8/2015
    • Participation in the CIES conference in Washington, D.C, USA, 3/2015
    • Doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers’ kick-off in Helsinki, Finland, 2/2015
    • Seminar in Turku, Finland, 12/2014
    • Advisory board meeting in Porto, Portugal, 9/2014
    • Seminar in Tampere, Finland, 2/2014
    • Participation in opening seminar of Academy of Finland research programme The Future of Learning, Knowledge and Skills (TULOS) in Helsinki, Finland, 2/2014

Quality Assurance and Evaluation (QAE) has globally become one of the most powerful framing factors for learning. The consequences are not always positive, as  evaluation may have strong unintended side effects, as shown in numerous studies. The research evidence, however, mainly focuses on liberal advanced societies. The cases of our study are the three large and increasingly powerful nations of Brazil, China and Russia. They are characterised as ‘future societies’ and strive to overcome their dependency on global models to establish a position of stronger sovereignty in the global arena.

The main research objective is to explore how the intertwinement of the local, the sub-national, the national, the regional and the global scales constructs the local dynamics in QAE politics and thus shapes local learning environments in the case countries. The project will develop and probe a new theoretical and methodological approach, Comparative Analytics of Dynamics in Education  Politics (CADEP), towards comparative understanding of education systems and open avenues for  mutual learning.

By means of a new theoretical and methodological approach, the project will affect the  general comparative, socio-historical and transnational understanding of the  construction of learning environments, with a particular focus on the policies and practices of QAE.

Owing to its focus on the effects of the evaluation procedures that re-shape local relations and learning environments, it will shed light on how they enhance, but also hinder, learning, and provide clues as to the evaluation know-how required in the future.