Session Information
23 SES 02 B, Approaching Education Policy (Part 2)
Paper Session
Contribution
While numbers and data have been central to the functioning of the nation state since its emergence in Europe in the late eighteenth century, both have become absolutely central to policy production and policy processes in the context of the neo-liberal restructuring of the nation state and its policy producing state structures that has occurred globally since the end of the Cold War. This paper draws on several research projects conducted in the UK, Europe and Australia to consider the phenomenon of 'policy as numbers' specifically in education. The paper seeks to under this phenomenon with reference to education policy in the UK, Europe, Australia and globally, specifically linking it to neo-liberal political settlements, the dominant structure of feeling, and also documents and critically analyses its policy effects in education. The argument proffered is that Europe and a global education policy field have been constituted via numbers and data, which are seen as governance technologies of distance. A national system of schooling is being constructed in Australia in a similar way. Some focus is given to the reframing and reduction of social justice in education policy globally to performance (quality and equity) on the OECD's PISA and within nations social justice has been reframed as 'gap talk': social justice conceptualised as closing gaps on standardised tests between equity groups and the middle class mainstream. The analysis draws upon policy sociology in education literature (e.g. Ball, 2008, Rizvi and Lingard, 2010) and also the literature on numbers and data in politics (e.g. Rose, 1999, Porter, 1995, Desrosieres, 1998). The paper is not opposed to data or quantitative methods, but rather is concerned to demonstrate and understand how policy as numbers works in contemporary education policy as part of the shift from government to governance.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
S.Ball (2008) The Education Debate, Bristol, Policy Press. A.Desrosieres (1998) A History of Statistical Reasoning, Cambridge, Harvard University Press. T.Porter (1995) The Poltics of Large Numbers, Cambridge, Harvard University Press. F.Rizvi and B.Lingard (2010) Globalizing Education Policy, London, Routledge. N.Rose (1999) The Powers of Freedom, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
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