Fabricating Quality in Education: Data and Governance in Europe

How is European Education Governed?
Data is now the lifeblood of education governance. At the international level, organisations like the OECD steer education systems through their programmes of assessment and the European Commission’s project of creating the most successful knowledge economy in the world is driven by data collection, analysis and comparison. At the national level, policy-makers increasingly depend on data to show them where they are positioned, in relation to their competitors, and draw on data to justify policy directions. Within systems, schools and teachers have become proficient in data use, and interpret their priorities with reference to data.
This book draws on a three-year comparative study of the influence of data on education systems in Europe, looking at the contrasting policy contexts of Denmark, England, Finland, Scotland and Sweden, and examining the use of data in these systems, in relation to steering by Europe, as well as policy mediation and ‘translation’ of data within systems. The authors draw on interviews with key policy actors in the European Commission and with national policy makers in all five systems, as well as on local case studies and a major comparative survey of the effects of data production and use on the work of teachers and headteachers. The research brought together international researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including educationalists, political scientists and specialists in research and evaluation.
The book offers new arguments relating to the use of Quality Assurance and Evaluation as a means of standardising and harmonising education policy and practice, while also drawing attention to significant variation in policy and practice across these systems. It should be of interest to researchers, post-graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in policy studies in education and more generally.

Jenny Ozga is Professor of the Sociology of Education in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, UK.
Peter Dahler-Larsen is a Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
Christina Segerholm is Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Mid Sweden University, Sweden.
Hannu Simola is a Professor of the Sociology of Education in the Department of Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Introduction Jenny Ozga, Peter Dahler-Larsen, Christina Segerholm and Hannu Simola Part I: Dimensions of Europeanisation 1. Changing Spatial and Social Relations in Education in Europe Martin Lawn, Risto Rinne and Sotiria Grek 2: Fabricating Europe: From Culture to Numbers Sotiria Grek and Risto Rinne 3. Europe Through Experts and Technologies Martin Lawn and Christina Segerholm 4. National Policy Brokering and the Construction of the European Education Space in England, Sweden, Finland and Scotland Sotiria Grek, Martin Lawn, Bob Lingard, Jenny Ozga, Risto Rinne, Christina Segerholm and Hannu Simola 5. Europe and the Global: The Role of the OECD in Education Politics Risto Rinne and Jenny Ozga 6. Europe in Translation Jenny Ozga, Peter Dahler-Larsen and Christina Segerholm Part II: Governing European Education 7. The Governance Turn Jenny Ozga, Christina Segerholm and Hannu Simola 8. Governing by Numbers: The Rise of Data in Education Hannu Simola, Jenny Ozga, Janne Varjo and Vibeke Normann Andersen 9. Central-Local Relations of Governance Jenny Ozga, Hannu Simola, Janne Varjo, Christina Segerholm, Susanna Hannus and Hannele Pikänen 10: Teachers' Perceptions of Quality Assurance and Evaluation John Gray, Linda Croxford, Carsten Strombaek Pedersen, Risto Rinne, Sari Silmäri-Salo, Hannu Simola and Mirka Mäkinen-Streng Afterwod: Evaluation as a Field and as a Source of Reflection Peter Dahler-Larsen