The experience of PISA in Germany: reception, recent reforms and reflexions about a changing educational system

This introductory study for the monograph on PISA in Germany provides a map of the contents and thematics addressed by the selection of works gathered from the scientific production published in Germany on the PISA from 2001 to 2008. This paper includes an analytical description of the current German educational system and an analysis of the changes that have been introduced after the "PISA shock", with a particular focus on the issues of decentralization and autonomy of schools and external evaluation and monitoring of its educational system. Finally, we reflect critically on some challenges posed by PISA on a distintive cultural nation with a strong tradition on educational matters and a large academic community in the field of education, exemplifying the role played by the concept and ideal of the ambivalent German question of Bildung in the current context of changing educational system in order to confront the needs of knowledge-based societies.