The Globalized Expert: On the Dissemination and Authorization of Evidence-Based Education

Over the past 15 years, the development of transnational actors in education has been followed by the strengthening and dominance of evidence-based educational research and policy. The paradigmatic shift toward forms of (quasi-)experimentally generated knowledge is increasingly used to construct evidence-based education as a “global project of innovation.” This chapter examines how this shift or rationale is popularized and disseminated by addressing everyone to take up the position of global expertise. For this purpose, the chapter investigates “authorization,” that is, the practices and strategies that are used to present evidence-based knowledge as legitimate or reasonable. While taking into consideration different kinds of empirical materials, the chapter’s main focus is placed on Pearson. Following the authorization strategies from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) functionary Andreas Schleicher to Pearson’s digital learning platform Revel, it is demonstrated how Pearson succeeds in using evidence-based research to its own market advantage—in the name of scientific authority.