Governing by Numbers

Stephen J. Ball is the Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education, University College London, UK. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2006, and is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the co-founder and Managing Editor of the Journal of Education Policy. His main areas of interest are in sociologically informed education policy analysis and the relationships between education, education policy, and social class. His books include How Schools do Policy (with Meg Maguire and Annette Braun, 2012), Global Education Inc. (2012), Networks, New Governance and Education (with Carolina Junemann, 2012), and Foucault, Power and Education (2013).

Introduction: Education, governance and the tyranny of numbers 1. The ‘datafication’ of early years pedagogy: ‘if the teaching is good, the data should be good and if there’s bad teaching, there is bad data’ 2. Elastic numbers: national examinations data as a technology of government 3. A logic of enumeration: the nature and effects of national literacy and numeracy testing in Australia 4. Performativity and pedagogising knowledge: globalising educational policy formation, dissemination and enactment 5. International rankings and the contest for university hegemony 6. Evaluation policy in education: the effects of international standards and performativity on Brazil’s postgraduate programmes of excellence 7. State school inspection policy in Norway and Sweden (2002–2012): a reconfiguration of governing modes?