How justified are the criticisms of bias against the OECD's global competence framework?

Aydogan I., Tat O.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, vol.114, no.114, pp.1-8, 2025 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 114 Issue: 114
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103258
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ASSIA, Periodicals Index Online, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Index Islamicus, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, Public Affairs Index
  • Page Numbers: pp.1-8
  • Keywords: Global competence, PISA 2018, Criticisms of bias, Measurement invariance, Differential item functioning
  • Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

In psychometric terms, bias is defined as the failure to ensure the psychological equivalence of the latent traits and related items intended to be measured by measurement procedures for different groups and therefore the measurements produce results in favor of or against at least one group. There has been both public and scientific criticism that it contains bias in terms of some features such as the OECD’s global competence framework is designed according to the principles of the western liberal tradition, that students interpret words and expressions in some items differently, that their understanding of poverty and privilege is limited, and that students’ lack of access to communication tools due to socio-economic conditions. In this research, we examined whether the OECD’s global competence framework presented to students in the PISA 2018 assessment is statistically biased in terms of sociological features that encompass and even go beyond criticisms of the framework. In this context, we used six international classification indices and analyzed data on around 143 thousand students from 27 PISA participating countries. We believe that results will clarify criticisms of bias in the OECD’s global competence framework.