The datafication of discipline: ClassDojo, surveillance and a performative classroom culture

ABSTRACT

This paper critically examines the ways in which ClassDojo is altering the disciplinary landscape in schools through the datafication of discipline and student behaviour. ClassDojo is one of the most popular and successful educational technologies and is used internationally. It is a school-based social media platform that incorporates a gamified behaviour-shaping function, providing school communities with a centralised digital network in which to interact. We argue that ClassDojo’s datafying system of school discipline intensifies and normalises the surveillance of students. Furthermore, it creates a culture of performativity and serves as a mechanism for behaviour control.

KEYWORDS:

• Datafication
• surveillance
• performativity
• classroom management
• student behaviour

Notes on contributors

Janie Manolev is a PhD candidate within the School of Education, University of South Australia. He has developed an interest in critical theory, and understanding the ways in which power operates through educational processes and systems. As a part of his PhD studies he is undertaking a qualitative critical inquiry of ClassDojo and its use as a disciplinary tool in schools.

Associate Professor Anna Sullivan is a leading expert in the fields of teachers’ work and school discipline, and has led a major Australian research project investigating behaviour in schools. She has been a chief investigator on numerous Australian Research Council Linkage grants. She has extensive teaching experience having taught in Australia and England and across all levels of schooling. In 2017, she was nationally identified as a leading Australian who is influencing the way education research is being reported in the media.

Roger Slee was a Vice-Chancellor's 100 Professors appointment to a Chair of Education at the University of South Australia. Roger is the Founding Editor of the International Journal of Inclusive Education. Roger was formerly Deputy Director-General of Education Queensland, and he has advised governments and education authorities in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Kosovo, Montenegro, Greece, England, India, Iraq and Jordan. Roger's most recent book is Inclusive Education isn't Dead, it Just Smells Funny, Published by Routledge.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Jamie Manolev http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5312-4400