Contextualizing the datafication of schooling–a comparative discussion of Germany and Russia
Publication date
2021
Document type
Research article
Author
Piattoeva, Nelli
Organisational unit
Scopus ID
Series or journal
Critical studies in education : formerly Melbourne studies in education
Periodical volume
62
Periodical issue
2
First page
227
Last page
242
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Keyword
International Comparative Research
Context
Data Infrastructures
Datafication
Standardized Assessments
Abstract
This paper contributes to a growing body of research on the increasing datafication of schooling, which has become a salient topic in comparative education and education policy research. Specifically, we address the rising scholarly concern about the meaning of (comparing) contexts as bounded localities facing an increasingly fluid and generative process of datafication. This concern is closely related to wider (and also older) calls to denaturalize space as a territory and instead to approach space as relational and consisting of complex constellations of changing topologies. Topological theorizing emphasizes spatial complexity and dynamism, and it simultaneously maintains that it is necessary to bridge topological and topographical perspectives and to understand their mutually constitutive nature in space-(re)making. Accordingly, we use the recent expansion of standardized assessments in Germany and Russia to illustrate the coming-together of topological and topographical space-making in datafication. One of our arguments is that the value of the concept of data infrastructures does not stop with pointing to the topological ‘side’ of datafication, but may also help to capture the complexity of the interplay of multiple topological and topographical moments of bordering, their mutual constitution and simultaneity at different phases of data design, collection, processing, analysis and reporting.
Version
Not applicable (or unknown)
Access right on openHSU
Metadata only access