The early childhood (or ‘early years’) sector in England (age 0-5 years) is increasingly oriented towards the collection of data on children’s attainment, personality and skills, largely due to a need to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of funding within a neoliberal system (Bradbury/Roberts-Holmes 2017; Moss 2013). In both the pre-school and school-based components of early years in England, statutory frameworks specify stages of ‘development’ and how children should be assessed against them, producing vast volumes of data, in the form of numerical judgements, colour codes, photographs and comments. This paper explores these developments, known as datafication (see also Jarke/Breiter 2019), and the impact on teacher subjectivities specifically. Teachers in England are subject to a regime of neoliberal accountability dominated by data and the visibility of their performance, but it is argued here that these pressures operate in different ways in the early years sector, with significance for data-based teacher subjectivities. The data presented are drawn from two research projects involving both qualitative fieldwork in a range of settings for children aged 0-5 years, including nurseries, children’s centres and primary schools, and a survey of teachers. Data collection in the early years settings involved primarily in-depth semi-structured interviews, with classroom teachers, nursery staff, senior leaders and parents of children in this age range. Additionally, some data were collected through observation in classrooms and document collection. The survey data were collected through an online survey of teachers of children aged 4-5 years and senior leaders (n=1131). Research data were analysed using a theoretical framework influenced by concepts of teacher subjectivity and their relation to performativity and the production of data (Ball et al. 2011, Lewis/Holloway 2018; Thompson/Cook 2014). The conclusions presented relate firstly, to the growing importance of data in early years teachers’ professional lives, and secondly, to the complexity of these educators’ positions in relation to data, professionalism and ethics. It is argued that early years teachers, who are able to draw on and draw strength from specifically early childhood-based knowledge, are able to resist this process of datafi¬cation in ways which are not available to other teachers. However, it is also noted that on occasion taking the apparently resistant route can actually facilitate policy; this is discussed as compliant resistance (Bradbury, 2019).

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