Datafication of schooling in Japan: an epistemic critique through the ‘problem of Japanese education’

ABSTRACT

Juxtaposed with the emerging body of literature about datafication in schooling, this paper examines the increasing encroachment of data into the Japanese education system, in particular, the use of data associated with standardised academic assessments for governance purposes. In so doing, we use the Japanese ‘case’ to expose the possible limits of the existing English-language scholarship on this phenomenon. By providing a contextualised, descriptive account of how data is incorporated into the three layers of Japanese education bureaucracy (municipal, prefectural, national), we call into question the assumed universality of datafication in schooling and its effect as proffered by Anglo-American education policy scholars. Using the Japanese case, the study elucidates the ways in which the particular policy context of the Anglo-American countries, where datafication has been extensively studied, sets certain limits on the existing discussion and leaves underexplored certain questions that might be more relevant to countries and regions beyond Anglo-American education policy contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Testing
• datafication
• instructional advisors
• educational governance
• Japan
• epistemic critique

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Of note here is the fact that test developers in Japanese edu-business are not assessment experts with psychometric expertise (e.g. Item Response Theory). Just like school teachers, they develop test items with their instructional relevance as the focus of development.

2. This shift towards a more scientific approach to academic assessment marks a radical break from the tradition of academic assessment in Japanese education. According to Kimura (2006), testing related technical expertise was introduced during the US-led postwar occupation. Those Japanese testing experts, trained by American researchers, were pushed out from the late 1950s onwards, when academic assessments in compulsory schooling became increasingly politicised. Many of them moved to work in the development of various assessments related to university entrance examinations. Since then, curriculum, subject specialists have dominated the development of assessment in Japanese compulsory education. See Kimura (2006) for a detailed discussion of this history.

3. Anyone can access schools’ websites and newsletters and obtain the average test scores of all the schools in City A. Hence, it is technically possible to compile league tables of schools.

4. Administrators at the other two municipal boards of education in Prefecture B that we interviewed were aware of Mr. Yamada’s ‘unusual’ appointment at Municipality A.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DP150102098].

Notes on contributors

Keita Takayama

Keita Takayama is Associate Professor in School of Education, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales.

Bob Lingard

Bob Lingard is Emeritus Professor in School of Education, University of Queensland and Professorial Fellow, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University, both in Brisbane, Queensland.