Good Education in an Age of Measurement

The widespread use of the measurement of educational outcomes in order to compare the performance of education within and across countries seems to express a real concern for the quality of education. This book argues that the focus on the measurement of educational outcomes has actually displaced questions about educational purpose. Biesta explores why the question as to what constitutes good education has become so much more difficult to ask and shows why this has been detrimental for the quality of education and for the level of democratic control over education. He provides concrete suggestions for engaging with the question of purpose in education in a new, more precise and more encompassing way, with explicit attention to the ethical, political and democratic dimensions of education. Chapter 1 Prologue On the Question of Purpose in Education; Chapter 1a What Is Education For?; Chapter 2 Evidence-Based Education between Science and Democracy; Chapter 3 Education between Accountability and Responsibility; Chapter 4 A Pedagogy of Interruption; Chapter 5 Democracy and Education after Dewey; Chapter 6 Education, Democracy and the Question of Inclusion; Chapter 7 Epilogue The End(s) of Learning;