Premium
Exploring the role of digital data in contemporary schools and schooling—‘200,000 lines in an Excel spreadsheet’
Author(s) -
Selwyn Neil,
Henderson Michael,
Chao ShuHua
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1002/berj.3186
Subject(s) - work (physics) , corporate governance , government (linguistics) , control (management) , data governance , digital data , sociology , public relations , mathematics education , computer science , political science , management , engineering , psychology , business , marketing , economics , data transmission , data quality , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , computer network , metric (unit) , linguistics , philosophy
The generation, processing and circulation of data in digital form is now an integral aspect of contemporary schooling. Based upon empirical study of two secondary school settings in Australia, this paper considers the different forms of digitally‐based ‘data work’ engaged in by school leaders, managers, administrators and teachers. In particular, three distinct aspects of school data work are explored: (i) the distinction between official ‘mandated’ data requirements from external government agencies, and the unofficial efforts to generate and work with ‘useful’ data; (ii) the highly mediated nature of digital data work within schools; (iii) the ways in which digital data lead to compromised knowledge and ‘work arounds’. These findings, it is argued, illustrate the embedding of digital data within secondary schools as a technology of (self)control in ways that tend to reinforce dominant cultures of school administration and management. As such, the paper considers how the restrictive forms of data governance currently at large within school systems might be problematized and acted against.