Governing knowledge: data, inspection and education policy in Europe

Abstract

The article studies the replacement of bureacratic systems of command and control by networks based on technologies, where co-operation and co-ordination are constantly negotiated and regulated in different ways, and where policy-makers negotiate new power relations with new actors. The comparison between England and Scotland highlights the fact that information and data cannot be transformed immediately into efficient initiatives, and that it requires a constant effort to find a consensus and to preserve it. In the centralised system of England, it is left to technocrats to make this conversion effective. In Scotland, the strategy of self-evaluation is adapted to a discourse of autonomy and progress for all. In both cases, the analysis of the available political tools, as well as the use of information and the role of the school inspectorates enable us to understand the conception of governance for nation-states in a framework of international and European developments.

Keywords:

• data
• governing
• inspection
• knowledge

Notes

1. Fabricating Quality in European Education/Governing by Numbers (ESRC: RES 00-23-1385), Knowledge and Policy (EU FP6 IP 028848-2) and Governing by Inspection (ESRC RES 062 23 2241A).

2. Martin Lawn, John Clarke and Sotiria Grek (UK), Hannu Simola and Risto Rinne (Finland), Christina Segerholm (Sweden), Peter Dahler-Larsen (Denmark), Eric Mangez and Christian Maroy (Belgium), Xavier Pons (France), Luis-Miguel Carvalho (Portugal). This paper is particularly indebted to the work of Sotiria Grek, John Clarke and Martin Lawn.

3. The research projects drawn on here shared a common methodological approach that focused on discourse analysis of policy texts including interviews – with key policy actors working at the interface between national systems and the European Commission, as well as policy actors working at national and local levels. Interviewees included senior officers and officials and inspectors, but not politicians. The acronyms used here identify our informants while maintaining their anonymity. For details of the methodology of the Fabricating Quality study see Ozga et al. (2011).