Week 9: our final ‘Tweetorial’
This is the first week of our third and final theme: ‘governing’ with data, in which we’ll consider the ways data-driven ideas, platforms, and infrastructure are shaping the ways education is overseen, organised and managed. As suggested in the outline to this block, there are a number of ways we can approach this theme, including the examination of policy development, institutional management, and the conduct of individual teachers and students.
We’ll accompany these considerations with some dedicated reading around the theme of ‘governance’, focused on the ways in which data-driven techniques, databases, networked infrastructure, as well as various ‘data imaginaries’ – ideas about what data processing can achieve – have influenced policy development in education towards notions of performativity and accountability. The critical direction of our reading in this block will be to question the ways in which this governance of education has impacted everyday practices and experiences in education.
Our reading will be supported this week with our final ‘tweetorial’ –intensive tweeting about the readings and associated concepts, as well as potential approaches for the ‘data visualisation’ task. The tweetorial will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week, with each day guided by a central question, as follows:
Tuesday question: What main kinds of data are used for policy in education and why?
Wednesday question: Who and what is involved in creating the large datasets required for governing with data in education?
Thursday question: What policy problems might big data be used to address in education, or what new problems might governing with data generate?
Your key tasks this week will be to:
- Read the core and secondary literature for block 3
- Participate in the Tweetorial on Twitter using #msccde (Tuesday to Thursday)
- Complete your weekly data visualisation