This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing research on data use in education and identifies key concepts and theoretical approaches in this body of research.

During the last decade in particular, a range of countries in Europe has implemented a relatively new set of evidence-based approaches in the field of education, emphasizing the combined power of performance measurement, quality indicators, and goal setting, accompanied by accountability and increased competition between schools. According to current policy trends, local authorities, school leaders and teachers should use data about student outcomes to evaluate and improve practices in order to enhance performance and contribute to transforming national educational systems to become more effective (cf. Fuller, 2008). Such data use represents the centrepiece of what is often referred to as evidence-based governing regimes, typically presented as an ideal way of coordinating activities on different levels in the school system (Ozga, 2009). Practices of data use can be defined as what happens when individuals interact by using test scores, grades, and other forms of assessment tools in their work (Coburn & Turner, 2011; Spillane, 2012), pointing to how steering and control in education is closely linked to that of individual and organizational learning.

Initiating data use in several countries as a core element in school-governing structures and processes highlights the need for further knowledge about the use of concepts and theoretical approaches applied in existing research on this issue. A few yet highly informative literature reviews (Coburn & Turner, 2011; Little, 2012) have been conducted, mainly focusing on the US context and contributions from the USA. These reviews can also be characterized as traditional or narrative reviews, typically presenting research relating to a topic of interest but without defining the explicit criteria for the identification and inclusion of studies (Davies, 2000; Gough, Oliver & Thomas, 2013). In this study, we have conducted a comprehensive literature review, employing methods developed in the field of research synthesis for a broader international approach and by including perspectives of Scandinavian and other European research on data use in education. On this backdrop, we ask the following research questions in the study: What concepts and theoretical perspectives are employed in existing research on data use internationally and in Europe? How is data use in education theoretically and conceptually framed in this body of research? Are there different paradigms or schools for research on data use in education?

To ensure a comprehensive review of literature on data use in education, an extensive search approach inspired by literature on research synthesis has been applied. Research synthesis is the common label for the methods of summarizing, integrating, and cumulating (if possible) the findings of studies on a topic or research question (Davies, 2000). This review draws on well-known procedures defined in the literature on research synthesis (Davies, 2000; Thomas & Pring, 2004; Gough et al., 2013). In detail, the study shares similarities with a systematic, narrative conceptual analysis—where different conceptual understandings derived from individual studies are identified and merged into a new, macro-conceptual and/or theoretical understanding. This process implies choices of the research question, conceptual framework, review protocol, inclusion criteria, search strategy, and data extraction and synthesis for configurative purposes. Performing a configurative review principally means to arrange findings from primary studies to answer the research question, as an alternative to aggregating their results (e.g., statistical meta-analysis and reviews of effect-size studies) (Gough et al., 2013). Configurative research synthesis focuses on questions that generate theories in both particular and different contexts. The primary studies identified are often heterogeneous and involve interpretive conceptual analysis. 

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