A data-driven approach – are we changing beliefs and values in schools?

• In Event: 21st-Century Challenges of Baltic School Education

Abstract

Education systems around the World are characterized by a tension between those interpreting learning as a technical, data-driven delivery system and those viewing it as a creative and contextual process. In the context of Latvia, the influence of neoliberalism has elevated the significance of data within its education system. Through insightful interviews with all schools’ principals and deputies in a Latvian city, this study outlines the practices influenced by neoliberalism - mutual observation and evaluation of teachers' work, control of professional development, self-evaluation. These practices alter beliefs regarding the goals of teaching and learning, the role of the teacher, and the importance of knowledge. Student learning seems to have faded from the educational discourse, replaced by various monitoring and evaluation practices of teacher work, data on average student performance, awards for achievements. Practices instil the belief that teaching is the creation of specific learning outcomes. Schools no longer feel necessity to make a socially significant contribution, but focus on their own growth, demonstrating their commitment to excellence, overlooking the fact that children and their learning needs are diverse. This trend raises the question - have we given up democratic values in the pursuit of data?

Short Bio

I am a Ph.D. student in the sociology and social work programme, researching the influence of neoliberalism on municipal education policy, schools, teacher agency and students. My focus is on power relations within the field of education, the reproduction of practices, the misrecognition of their effects, as well as shifts in beliefs and values. I use qualitative research methods in my as they not only facilitate an explanation of events but also enable the exploration of strategies to influence and alter the current order. This line of research is personally important to me: upon returning to work in a public school after a 15-year hiatus, I was astonished by the transformations in the environment. The practices I observed were not centred on effective teaching, instead monitoring and control had permeated school life, leaving little space for meaningful relationships and the inherent joy of teaching and learning. I feel a moral obligation to address performativity, as I have actively been involved in educational reform projects and, in a way, bear responsibility for the current situation.

Author

• Solvita Lazdiņa, University of Latvia