A feel for numbers: affect, data and education policy

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between commensuration and affect in various contexts of education policy. Commensuration is the process through which disparate qualities are transformed into a common metric and is central to the production of performance data. The rise of governance through numbers in education has resulted in a proliferation of performance data, comparisons and rankings that influence political debate and policymaking. The efficacy of data as a governance mechanism depends on their usage to shift perceptions of performance, and this involves both conscious interpretation and affective sense-making of data and their representation in multiple forms. For example, performance data used within accountability systems in education are linked to sanctions and rewards, and their effects are partially due to the feelings that are provoked. The relationship between affect and data is also important in the mobility of policy ideas, which spread via meetings that enable affective proximity between participants. This article draws on a philosophical concept of affect, defined as the feeling of transition in bodily states, and topological concepts that are being taken up in social theory, to consider new perspectives on education policy research that these thinking tools may afford.

Keywords:

• affect
• commensuration
• data
• education policy
• PISA
• topology

Notes

1. The author of this paper is an Associate Editor of Critical Studies in Education. This paper was originally presented at an invited workshop from which the special issue originated and is included here on this basis. The manuscript underwent a double-blind peer review process that was managed by the guest editors.

2. The term analogue is used here to contrast with digital: analogue signals are continuous variations that are inherently ‘noisy’ – that is, they involve random variations – whereas ‘discrete’ digital signals are limited to a specific set of values.

3. This section draws on research conducted as part of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP1094850): Schooling the Nation in an Age of Globalisation: National Curriculum, Accountabilities and Their Effects. Professor Bob Lingard was the Chief Investigator of this project.

4. Grek (2013) cautions that it is important not to overlook the competing interests and antagonisms that operate in times and spaces of meeting, including the question of who is not invited to meetings.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sam Sellar

Dr Sam Sellar is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Education at the University of Queensland. Sam’s current research interests include national and international large-scale assessments, new accountabilities and the aspirations of young people today. He has a forthcoming book (with Bob Lingard, Goli Rezai-Rashti and Wayne Martino) titled Globalizing educational accountabilities: Testing regimes and rescaling governance (Routledge).