Conference Agenda

Educational data, including test data and other types of performance data, as well as accounting data, register data, and survey data, have for a long time been used to compare students, schools, and countries (Grek, 2009; Sellar & Lingard, 2018). Contemporarily, the use of educational data and data technologies in the governance of public education is changing, if not rising. These data are now subject to algorithmic processing and modelling, such as clustering and forecasting. Measurements of progression over time, prolongations or projections of the past into the future (Adams, Murphy, & Clarke, 2009), and the identification of future risks all seek to control the future via timely policy or management responses in the present. Data are furthermore used to create institutional aspirations (Lewis, 2018) or policymaking rooted in fear of the future (Webb & Gulson, 2012), and to constitute imagined communities and common pasts (Piattoeva & Tröhler, 2019). In other words, the public governance of education via data is permeated by temporalities such as progression and potentiality in relation to the formation of societies, populations, and individuals.

This double symposium explores the temporal dimensions of the use and impact of educational data in the governance of education theoretically, conceptually, and methodologically (Lingard, 2021). The symposium theorizes time and temporality in relation to the use of data in educational governance by drawing on post-structuralist, socio-material, and new materialist concepts of time as enacted in policy and data practices and as productive of educational realities (Adam, 1998; Decuypere, Hartong, & van de Oudeweetering, 2022; Ratner, 2020). The symposium problematizes conventional understandings of time and temporality by discussing both embedded policy conceptions of time, power struggles over and in time, shifting temporalities of educational governance, the production of futures and pasts through various knowledge practices, temporal practices of control and optimization with reference to the future, and time as a mechanism of governance.

By presenting historical and contemporary case studies spanning across education policy, educational organization and management, and teacher practices, the symposium unpacks various aspects of the temporality of educational governance with data. These include for example the promissory futures of datafication and digitalization; the role of data displaying risky futures as a mobilizer for urgent and/or cautious policy and management decisions; the politics of time aided by the datafication of time; and the temporalities of performance measurement and teacher practices, encompassing both simultaneity, acceleration, immediacy, and hesitation. Through these case studies, time in educational governance with data emerges as both an object or asset that can be possessed and managed in the everyday practices of education, a structuring mechanism that education can be managed and govern through, and an analytical lenses for the study of temporalized modalities of educational governance.

Methodologically, the case studies include historical and ethnographic methodologies as well as policy studies and discourse analysis, and the methods used encompass interviews, observations, platform walkthroughs, and document studies. The case studies span across Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, and transnational policy contexts. Through this polyvalent approach, the symposium aims at exploring the temporal dimensions of governing education with data from a variety of contexts and perspectives, with the aim of generating synthesizing conceptualizations that may push the research field forward. These include ‘datafied temporalities’, indicating how data are used to create temporalities with governing effects in education, and ‘temporal modalities of data practices’, indicating how data practices in educational governance affect temporalities of governance and teacher practices. With these conceptualizations, the double symposium unpacks an emerging research agenda in educational governance research.

National tests in Norway are part of the National Quality Assessment System, and the tests are mandatory in Norwegian, English and Mathematics at 5th, 8th and 9th grade. They have a dual function: increasing quality in schools and enabling insight into educational output (Skedsmo, 2009). The Norwegian school system is widely dispersed. In this context, national tests attempt to align the diverse policies and practices in Norwegian schools, and to clarify and (re)distribute responsibilities between local, municipal, and national levels in ways that also involve temporal dimensions. We draw from the theoretical strands that are ontologically embedded in the assumption of the mundaneness of governance and the active role of non-humans in its enablement (Woolgar & Neyland, 2013). The approach of policy instrumentation focuses on the mechanisms through which “authorities … [seek] to shape, normalise and instrumentalise the conduct, thought, decisions and aspirations of others in order to achieve the objectives they consider desirable” (Miller & Rose, 1990: 8). Looking at national tests as policy instruments, we then zoom further onto their functioning in two intertwined ways: as instruments governing time and governing through temporal elements. Here we bring together perspectives from the sociology of time that emphasise the sociomaterial and technoscientific construction of time and temporality, and time as a resource of governance (Adam, 2004; May & Thrift, 2001). We examine how these temporal elements, together, enable governance by the central authorities as a performative effect. The main research question we ask is: How do national assessments govern (through) time? Empirically, we analyse policy documents from the Directorate for Education and Training that outline specific recommendations and guidelines for the preparation, execution and interpretation of national tests. We also draw from ‘Statistikk’, a branch of the Directorate’s webpage that offers visualizations of national testing data. Whereas policy analysis is habitually concerned with flashy policy papers, such as strategies, programmes and decrees, we argue for the importance of looking at the gray and dull manuals, instructions, recommendations and similar mundane documents to disentangle the operations of governance through policy instruments and temporal processes specifically. We start the analysis by identifying three rhythms (yearly, processual and digital) as analytical entry points into the data, and look closely into how each of them governs time and through temporal processes. We argue that governance (through) time incites different actors across the country and across scales (schools, municipality) to align their practices.

Adam, B. (2004). Time. Cambridge, UK ;: Polity. May, J., & Thrift, N. (2001). Timespace : geographies of temporality. London: Routledge. Miller, P., & Rose, N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and Society, 19(1), 1-31. doi:10.1080/03085149000000001 Skedsmo, G. (2009). School governing in transition? Perspectives, purposes and perceptions of evaluation policy. University of Oslo, Oslo. Woolgar, S., & Neyland, D. (2013). Mundane governance : ontology and accountability (1. ed. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Data visualization has become an integral part of governing education, greatly expanding its reach and influence in the digital age. From tracking the performance of individual students to monitoring the overall success of educational systems, data visualization serves as a powerful tool for informing policy and decision-making on both global and local levels. By providing an easy-to-understand representation of numerical data, it helps governments to quickly identify patterns and trends over time, make calculations about the future and communicate complex information in ways that are both informative and aesthetically pleasing. While there has recently been an increased interest in understanding the role of numbers in shaping education policy (e.g., Pettersson, 2020), visual representations have so far received little attention. Given the importance attached to data in education governance (Williamson, 2016), this gap is surprising. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to contribute insights on how images, words and numbers work together to produce knowledge that makes educational systems amenable to analysis, comparison, and governance (Decuypere & Landri, 2021; Williamson, 2016). More precisely, we explore how quantitates are transformed into geometric shapes, arrows, bars, and vectors to create persuasive accounts of what ‘works’ and what needs to be fixed. We do so by analyzing abstract non-representational pictures employed by international education agencies (such as OECD and UNESCO) in their reports from the last three decades. Inspired by Science and Technologies Studies (Daston & Galison, 2007; Latour, 2012; Lynch & Woolgar, 1990), we consider data visualization a specific technique of knowledge production that structures our understanding of educational spaces and temporalities (cf. Decuypere & Simons, 2020). Although data visualization is often assigned the role of ‘cognitive aid’, the preliminary results of our study indicate that it is not as transparent and self-evident as it is widely believed. By allowing the viewer to ‘see’ the past and present and to imagine the future, graphs, charts, and diagrams convey the impression as if they were entirely devoid of politics. With this promise of objectivity visual representations turn invisible phenomena into ‘noisy’ but ‘beautiful’ evidence (Halpern, 2015; Lynch, 1991). Nevertheless, data visualization presupposes filtering of what can be seen, in what ways and for what purposes. As such, it operates as a mode of preemptive governance (cf. Massumi, 2007), whereby the visualized pasts and projected (un-)desirable futures are brought into and organize the present.

Daston, L., & Galison, P. (2007). Objectivity. New York: Zone Books. Decuypere, M., & Landri, P. (2021). Governing by visual shapes: university rankings, digital education platforms and cosmologies of higher education. Critical Studies in Education, 62(1), 17-33. Decuypere, M., & Simons, M. (2020). Pasts and futures that keep the possible alive: Reflections on time, space, education and governing. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(6), 640-652. doi:10.1080/00131857.2019.1708327 Halpern, O. (2015). Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945. Durham: Duke University Press. Latour, B. (2012). Visualisation and Cognition: Drawing Things Together. Avant (Toruń)(3), 207-257. Lynch, M. (1991). Pictures of Nothing? Visual Construals in Social Theory. Sociological Theory, 9(1), 1-21. doi:10.2307/201870 Lynch, M., & Woolgar, S. (1990). Representation in scientific practice. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Massumi, B. (2007). Potential Politics and the Primacy of Preemption. Theory & event, 10(2), N_A. Pettersson, D. (2020). A comparativistic narrative of expertise: International large-scale assessments as the encyclopaedia of educational knowledge. In G. Fan & T. S. Popkewitz (Eds.), Handbook of Education Policy Studies: School/University, Curriculum, and Assessment, Volume 2. Singapore: Springer Singapore Pte. Limited. Williamson, B. (2016). Digital education governance: data visualization, predictive analytics, and 'real-time' policy instruments. Journal of Education Policy, 31(2), 123-141.

The shift from analogue to digital learning materials in Danish primary and lower secondary schools introduces new technologies to teachers’ work lives and experiences. This paper pays attention to data visualizations in digital learning materials. They provide teachers with instant overviews about student performance or learning. Data visualizations are graphic representations often categorizing learners through colors like red, green, and yellow or comparing learners in classrooms, across municipalities, nationwide, or to previous performance scores through progression curves. Data visualizations are mostly used as part of teachers’ assessments practices. I conceptualize data as more-than-human phenomena invested with diverse forms of vitalities (Lupton, 2020), and they thus have worldmaking abilities. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at two Danish primary and lower secondary schools, I explore the entanglement of multiple temporalities present when teachers (dis)engage with data visualizations. Drawing on feminist philosopher Karen Barad’s concept of spacetimemattering (2007) and feminist scholar Sarah Sharma’s notion of the politics of time (2014), the aim of the article is to pay attention to how multiple temporalities entangle, differentiate, contrast, and compete (Plotnikof & Mumby, 2023). Examining the influence of data visualizations in teachers’ work, I ask: What particular time constructs entangle and compete when teachers meet data visualizations? What are the different logics entailed in the multiple temporalities? And how does the entanglement of temporalities reconfigure teachers’ practices? Through empirical material generated through participant observations, I explore three different temporalities and examine how they differ, contrast, compete, and how they reconfigure and organize teachers’ work practices. The first temporality is present in the data visualizations and has characteristics of instantaneity and immediacy. The second temporality is present in teachers’ assessment practices, which are based on careful consideration, deliberation, and hesitation. I argue that while the temporalities embedded in digital data visualizations are characterized by speed, they do not necessarily speedup teachers’ assessment practices. However, teachers’ work experiences are affected by different temporal orders. This is evident in the third temporality, which unfolds through digital learning materials automating the teachers’ task of assessment through data visualizations. The digital learning materials promises teachers to ‘save time’ on the “unimportant” and “boring” task of assessing and correcting (some) student material. Not having the bodily experience of spending time assessing student material affects teachers’ in various ways.

Barad, K. M. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press. Lupton, D. (2020). Data selves: More-than-human perspectives. Polity. Plotnikof, M., & Mumby, D. K. (2023). Temporal multimodality and performativity: Exploring politics of time in the discursive, communicative constitution of organization. Organization, 13505084221145648. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221145649 Sharma, S. (2014). In the meantime: Temporality and cultural politics. Duke University Press.

In many EU countries, urbanization and aging of population present significant challenges for arranging welfare system services including education (EC, 2018). In Finland, the demographic transition has already dramatically shaped the national school network especially in the depopulated rural areas. During the last 20 years, the number of Finnish basic education schools (ISCED 1 &2) has dropped to a half and the average number of pupils per school has doubled (Vallinkoski, 2017). In terms of school transport, particularly pupils in the rural areas spend longer hours commuting to and from basic education. In the population scenarios for future decades, a similar or even an accelerating development is anticipated (FNAE, 2020; MDI, 2022). Social equality, including regional equality, is one of the corner stones of the Nordic welfare state. In Finnish basic education, this take on equality can be witnessed in the ideal of equal education for all regardless of e.g. geographic origin (Kalalahti, 2021). The starting point of this article is that regional and geographical equality is a matter of both spatial (Soja, 2010) and temporal justice (Tyssedal, 2021). By using the recent governmental, regional, and local reports and policy papers as data, the article examines the dynamics of Finnish basic education politics and governance in school network planning and school transport policies. The key theoretical concepts employed in this article are the concept of temporal justice (Tyssedal, 2021) and temporalized politics (Goetz, 2009; Palonen, 2008). Furthermore, the use of a sense of urgency in decision-making and time as a limited resource, are discussed. The authors assert that temporality plays a significant role in the complex dynamics of education policymaking and politics. Limitations posed by time and the urgent solutions needed to ensure the survival of welfare state, are central technologies of modern education governance. At the same time, regional and local politicians need to cater for the needs of their local community to ensure re-election. Finally, the authors argue that an unintended consequence of the school transport and school network policies is a hierarchy in which rural families and children spend most of their time commuting and “quality time” (Tyssedal, 2021) is a privilege reserved to families living in urban areas. Nevertheless, the rural families are by no means powerless. Their agency lies in their freedom and ability to choose a residence that best serves their families´ needs and fits their perceptions of what constitutes a good life.

European Commission, D.-G. f. E. a. F. A. (2018). The 2018 ageing report: economic & budgetary projections for the 28 EU Member States (2016-2070). Retrieved from FNAE. (2020). Future Outlook for Basic Education and the School Network. Reports of Finnish National Agency of Education. Retrieved from https://www.oph.fi/sites/default/files/documents/Perusopetuksen_ja_kouluverkon_tulevaisuudennakymia.pdf Goetz, K. H., & Meyer-Sahling, J.-H. (2009). Political time in the EU: dimensions, perspectives, theories. Journal of European public policy, 16(2), 180-201. doi:10.1080/13501760802589198 Kalalahti, M., & Varjo, J. (2021). Revisiting universalism in the Finnish education system. Finnish Journal of Social Research, 13, 25-40. doi:10.51815/fjsr.110792 MDI. (2022). Population Scenario in Finland. Powerpoint-presentation. Retrieved from https://www.mdi.fi/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MDIn-vaestoennuste-2022_300922.pdf Palonen, K. (2008). The Politics of Limited Times. The Rhetoric of Temporal Judgment in Parliamentary Democracies. Baden-Baden: Nomos. Soja, E. W. (2010). Seeking spatial justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Tyssedal, J. J. (2021). The Value of Time Matters for Temporal Justice. Ethical theory and moral practice, 24(1), 183-196. doi:10.1007/s10677-020-10149-1 Vallinkoski, A. (2017). Koulujen kato [Disappearence of Schools]. Yliopisto-lehti, 2017(8).