Abstract:

The results of the international study PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have long been in the focus of the educational policy of many countries and become the basis for recommendations to educational organizations. However, often these recommendations do not consider the within-country context and regional differences in the landscape of educational inequality.

This study is done in the framework of the sociospatial concept of Pierre Bourdieu. The aim of the article is to identify and describe the scale of regional differences in the educational results of Russian school students in PISA-2018 and their relationship with the cultural and social capital of students and those indicators of the social space of the school that are the focus of the PISA recommendations for educational policy. Data analysis was performed using a series of linear regressions with cluster standard error correction.

The results show that the landscapes of educational inequality in Russian regions vary. Regional differences in reading literacy of students were comparable with 2.4 years of study, in mathematical literacy - with 1.6 years of study. For indicators of the cultural and social capital of students, the largest regional differences are observed both in the distribution of these capitals and in their connection with the educational results of students. The indicators of social space vary less between regions, however, the patterns of their relationship with the results are also different. Finally, the practices of teaching reading that students from different subjects of the Russian Federation face are almost identical. But even in this case, their similar use may not show the expected increase in points in the case of a particular region.

The results obtained cast doubt on the effectiveness of the universal conclusions and recommendations of PISA, which do not consider local contexts, especially in the case of Russia as a country with a very extensive and diverse territory. This creates new challenges related to the reassessment of the validity of nationwide recommendations made based on the analysis of data from a small number of regions.

Keywords:

Regional differences, PISA, reading literacy, mathematical literacy, cultural capital, social capital, school social space, educational inequality.