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In this paper we attempt to analyse how OECD knowledge production is integrated with the process in which Finnish education policy takes shape. This is done by analysing the uses of the OECD PISA Study by the Ministry of Education in Finland. The main question posed is: How do Finnish government officials interpret the PISA results so as to justify the decisions made in Finnish education policy in the past or to point out new areas of development concerning basic education? The analysis shows that the interpretations of the PISA results tend to favour those responsible for actions within the central government. In the texts analysed, the scientificity of the PISA programme is presented as beyond doubt, while the direct usefulness of the research results for the further development of national education is also proclaimed. As to the specific results of PISA, the excellent learning outcomes of Finnish students are claimed to be due to educational reforms conducted and decisions made by central government, whereas shortcomings and areas in which the Ministry sees a need for improvement are argued to be dependent on the actions of other agents. Thus, the analysis shows that the conclusions drawn from the PISA results in texts representing the views of the Ministry of Education are biased and serve to justify its policy agenda. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the recent challenge to qualitative research from evidence-based research, it is worthwhile to ask, how we can account for the success story of qualitative research since the 1970s. Therefore this paper relates the rise of qualitative research to social changes. The analysis shows that the rise of qualitative research is related to the neoliberal regime, in which government works through the creation, shaping, and utilization of human beings as subjects. Thus power works through, and not against, subjectivity. Qualitative research and its interest in subjectivity and experience is an adequate response to this. By way of conclusion, the paper discusses the critical potential of social research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]