ABSTRACT

Schools now face considerable pressure to be using educational data to inform decision-making and become more efficient. Key to this rise of the ‘data-driven’ school is the increased use of digital technologies – with computer-based data processing fuelling hopes for the technology-driven ‘smart schooling’ and a general ‘datafication’ of education. Against this background, the present paper explores the realities how data-work is taking place within individual schools with the aid of digital technologies. In particular, it draws on empirical data generated from in-depth ethnographic studies of digital data practices within three secondary schools in the Australian state of Victoria. Using concepts from the sociology of numbers, the paper takers these empirical findings to develop productive and relational accounts of the predominant ways that data work was being carried out within these schools. In contrast to the idea of ‘Big Data’, schools were most often found to be engaging in small-scale, improvised forms of spreadsheet work. The paper considers the social, cultural and political reasons underpinning schools’ reliance on such forms of ‘small data’ – particularly in contrast to the more sophisticated, automated and continuous forms of data analysis that are now available.

摘要

学校现在面临着使用教育数据为决策提供信息并提高效率的巨大压力。“数据驱动”学校兴起的关键是数字技术的使用增加——基于计算机的数据处理为技术驱动的“智能学校”和教育的普遍“数据化”带来了希望。在此背景下，本文探讨了如何借助数字技术在各个学校内进行数据工作的现实。特别是，它借鉴了澳大利亚维多利亚州三所中学对数字数据实践的深入民族志研究产生的经验数据。使用数字社会学的概念，本文采用这些实证研究结果，对这些学校内开展数据工作的主要方式进行了富有成效的和相关的说明。与“大数据”的概念相反，学校最常被发现从事小规模、即兴的电子表格工作。该论文考虑了支持学校依赖这种形式的“小数据”的社会、文化和政治原因——特别是与现在可用的更复杂、自动化和连续的数据分析形式形成对比。