This symposium employs a comparative perspective on seemingly different – or even incompatible – global agendas and efforts: 1) the international testing culture permeating national school reforms that has as its stated purpose the goal of raising student performance levels; and 2) the international inclusiveness agenda aiming at securing equal and fair access for students, as well as ensuring a thriving democratic diversity in the education environment. The ambition of the symposium is to raise a critical, constructive discussion of these movements, which appear to support one another, yet offer profound contradictions.

These contradictions become apparent when the agendas are put into practice in schooling and educational policies. Thus, we aim to analyse the dilemma arising between school reforms that urge schools, teachers, and students to move towards a constantly higher academic level, and at same time, those who practice a politics of inclusion leading to a greater degree of student diversity in regular schools. It is a dilemma calling for new discussions and solutions by and among educational policy makers, researchers, school administrators, and teachers.

Since 1994, when many countries ratified the Salamanca Statement on social and educational inclusion, efforts have been made to include all children in the general daycare and school systems, and thus reduce exclusion and special needs education. This inclusive effort – currently visible in the UN sustainable development goals – can be seen as linked to values of democracy and equality in society. However, this effort at inclusiveness faces challenges due to an increase in the number of refugee/minority children and students being diagnosed with mental disorders, along with a similar rise in the number of students referred to special needs education. Such increases in pupil diversity and diagnoses implicating student referrals to alternate education realms are connected to what has been framed as ‘the global testing effort’, which refers to the practical application of various testing programs at different levels. These programs range from psychological and psychiatric tests too large, international comparative testing schemes. Different testing technologies influence educational practice and decisions constituting power and truth regimes by also influencing professionals’ understanding and actions. In turn, these affect students’ learning trajectories in relation to inclusion. All of this seems to point towards a dilemma between, on the one hand, ideals about accountability and assessment, and on the other hand, ambitions to create a school system that can support possibilities of participation and learning for all children.

The symposium will be based on an interdisciplinary, global research collaboration investigating the relation between testing technologies and practices, and the ideals of inclusion, equality, and democracy in an international perspective. By integrating these two agendas, the proposed symposium will shed light on new possibilities for educational improvements in global and local contexts. 

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