The configurative agency of metrics in education: a research agenda involving a different engagement with data

ABSTRACT

The increased use of quantitative education data is often regarded by scholars as evidence of the emergence of’governing by numbers’. These scholars ascribe major stakeholders such as the OECD and nation states agency as they produce, distribute and consume data, and respond to these with policy and management initiatives. This paper argues that metrics themselves have a configurative agency that affects education in terms of educational ideas and designs. The paper illustrates this point by analysing two cases of graduate employability metrics, each of which configures education differently, and discusses how the configurative agency of metrics can become the focal point of a different research agenda using distinct analytical concepts drawn from the sociology of quantification and new materialism. The paper concludes that such a research agenda can enable actors involved in the design and development of education to enter into a professional dialogue and engagement with education data, rather than merely dismissing it.

KEYWORDS:

• Metrics
• new materialism
• graduate employability
• higher education

Acknowledgments

A sincere thanks to everyone at the three Danish universities and elsewhere in the Danish university sector who let me become entangled in their worlds. Also, a warm thank you to Susan Lee Robertson and Felix Weiss, as well as my two reviewers, for valuable comments on previous versions of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The employment sector characteristic differs substantially from the other factors. Even though this factor is very interesting, it moves beyond this paper to analyse it. Therefore, it is not included in the further analysis of the metric.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Miriam Madsen

Miriam Madsen is a PhD fellow in education policy, governance and administration, studying graduate employability metrics in Danish higher education.