Fabricating Quality in Europe: data and education governance
Author(s):
Jennifer Teresa Ozga Martin Lawn
Hannele Pitkänen
Risto Rinne
Christina Segerholm
Hannu Simola Sotiria Grek
Conference:
ECER 2009
Network:
23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Format:
Symposium

Session Information

23 SES 05 A, Fabricating Quality in Europe: Data and Education Governance (Part 1)

Symposium, to be continued in 23 SES 06 A

Time:
2009-09-29
08:30-10:00
Room:
HG, HS 28
Chair:
Ken Jones
Discussant:
Jane Kenway

Contribution

The proposed symposium reports on findings from a three-year research council/eurocores project that examined the interrelationship of data, quality assurance processes and governance of education in Denmark, Finland, England, Scotland and Sweden. This project focused on the governance of education through investigation and analysis of (a) the extent of policy convergence and divergence in QAE across the systems in the project, (b) the extent of Europeanisation of education across the different systems, and evidence of policy learning, (c) differences and similarities in the operation of QAE at different levels across systems and (d) impacts of QAE processes on teachers in the different systems. It drew on detailed individual multi-level studies that shared a common design. The findings contribute to the development of comparative methodologies that are sensitive to the influence of trans-national pressures for QAE on national systems, while also recognising the importance of context in shaping responses to these pressures. We suggest that the development of evaluation as a form of governing is of major significance in understanding education policy and the development of a knowledge society/knowledge economy as a key European objective (Ball 2002, Lawn 2002). This research challenges the assumption that quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) regimes must, by their very nature, and despite their very significant costs in time and money, contribute to system and individual improvement, and that this is their main purpose.

Method

The research reported on here draws on a range of methods that are shared throughout the collaboration and integrated into the research design of the individual national studies that combine to make up the collaborative project. Each national project followed a research design that requires major multi-level interrelated studies to be carried out in each national system. These included policy text analysis, interviews with national and transnational policy actors, local case studies and a survey of teachers in each national context. These data have been integrated in order to arrive at comparative conclusions

Expected Outcomes

The conclusions of the three year study cover a range of topics, including the evidence of increased 'Europeanisation' through policy technologies such as benchmarking and indicators, the strength of the transnational influence of OECD; the changing nature of local-central relations across the different systems, and the increased pressure on teachers produced by performance management systems that require data production. A synthesis of these findings will stress the importance of context in explaining the extent of 'Europeanisation' while also highlighting the effects of data as a governing tool.

References

Andersen, V.N. & Dahler-Larsen, P ’The Framing of Public Evaluation Data: Transparency and Openness in Danish Schools in J Breul, R Boyle og P Dahler-Larsen (ed) Open to the Public: Evaluation in the Public Arena, 2008 Andersen V- Pedersen C (2007) Professional Knowledge vs. Evaluation-based Knowledge Odense conference October 2007 Ball S.J (2003) ‘The Teachers Soul and the Terrors of Performativity’ Journal of Education Policy 18 (2) 215-228. Callon, M (1986) 'Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc bay', in Law, J (ed) Power, Action and Belief: a new sociology of knowledge?, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Lawn, M. & Grek, S. (2006) ‘Europeanising Education: Fabricating a system for governing?’, Fabricating Quality in European Education Working Paper 1. Available online at: http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/research/FabQ/publications.htm Lawn M and Grek S (2009) ‘North by Northwest: quality assurance processes in European Schooling’ Journal of Education Policy Special Issue on Data and Education Governance (Vol no not yet known) Lingard, B. & Grek, S. (2007) ‘The OECD, Indicators and PISA: An exploration of events and theoretical perspectives’, Fabricating Quality in European Education Working Paper 2. Available online at: http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/research/FabQ/publications.htm Grek, S., Lingard, B., Lawn, M., Ozga, J. (2007) ‘National Policy Brokering and the Construction of the European Education space: the cases of England and Scotland’, Fabricating Quality in European Education Working Paper 3. Available online at: http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/research/FabQ/publications.htm Grek, S. (2008) ‘From Symbols to Numbers: the shifting technologies of education governance in Europe’, European Educational Research Journal, 7, 2, 208-218 Grek, S., Lawn, M., Lingard, B., Ozga, J., Rinne, R., Segerholm, C. & Simola, H. (2009)National Policy brokering and the construction of the European Education Space in England, Sweden, Finland and Scotland’, Comparative Education 45 1 February 5-22. Kallo J and R. Rinne (2007) (Eds.), Supranational regimes and national education policies: encountering challenge (pp. 299-333). Turku: Finnish Educational Research Association, Kasvatusalan tutkimuksia Lascoumes P and Le Galès P (2007) ‘Understanding Public Policy through its instruments-from the nature of instruments to the sociology of public policy instrumentation’ Governance 20 (1) 1-21 Nóvoa, A. & Yariv-Mashal, T. (2003) Comparative research in education: A mode of governance or a historical journey? Comparative Education, 39 (4) , 423-439. Rinne, R., Kallo, J., & Hokka, S. (2004). Too Eager to Comply? OECD Education Policies and the Finnish Response. European Educational Research Journal, 3(2), 454-485. Segerholm, C. (2009 forthcoming) ‘We are doing well on QAE: The case of Sweden’ Journal of Education Policy Special issue vol no not yet known Simola. H. & Rinne, R. (2008) Researching the political effects of quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) in education – Reflections on some comparative issues in sociology and the politics of education in the audit society. In M. A. Pereyra (Ed.) Changing Knowledge and Education. Communities, Mobilities and New Policies in Global Societies. Pp. 171-183. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2002) Reterritorializing Educational Import: explorations into the politics of educational borrowing, in A. Nóvoa & M. Lawn (Eds) Fabricating Europe Dordrecht, Kluwer.

Author Information

Jennifer Teresa Ozga
University of Edinburgh
Centre for Educational Sociology
Edinburgh
Martin Lawn
University of Edinburgh
Centre for Educational Sociology
Edinburgh
Hannele Pitkänen
University of Helsinki
Department of education
Helsinki
67
Risto Rinne
Turku university
CELE, Dep. of education
20014 Turku
67
Christina Segerholm
MidSweden University
Department of Education
Härnösand
186
Hannu Simola
University of Helsinki
Department of Education
Helsinki
67
Sotiria Grek
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER. 

Search the ECER Programme

  • Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
  • Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
  • Search for authors and in the respective field.
  • For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
  • If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.