Emerging data infrastructures and the new topologies of education policy

Kalervo N Gulson, Sam Sellar
2018 Environment & Planning. D, Society and Space  
This paper examines how datafication is creating new topologies of education policy. Specifically, we analyse how the creation of data infrastructures that enable the generation, communication and representation of digital data are changing relations of power, including both centralised and dispersed forms, and space in education. The paper uses conceptual resources from cultural topology and infrastructure studies to provide a framework for analysing spatial relations between educational data,
more » ... discourses, policies and practices, in new governance configurations. The paper outlines a case study of an emergent data infrastructure in Australian schooling, the National Schools Interoperability Program, to provide empirical evidence of the movement, connection and enactment of digital data across policy spaces. Key aspects of this case include the ways that data infrastructure is: i) enabling new private and public connections across policy topologies; ii) creating a new role for technical standards in education policy; and, iii) changing the topological spaces of education governance. 2 Emerging data infrastructures and the new topologies of education policy This paper examines how datafication is creating new topologies of education policy. We aim to provide new theorisations and empirical evidence to understand how the creation of data infrastructures, which enable the generation, communication and representation of digital data, is contributing to the emergence of digital educational governance (Williamson, 2016) and changing relations of power and space in education.
doi:10.1177/0263775818813144 fatcat:3lwtmjnshjh3nci6tsraegxtsm