Measuring what we value: the role of data in education research and policy

• In Event: The 70th anniversary of the International Review of Education: Reflecting on the history of comparative education and ‘development’ (Part 2)

Proposal

This article will provide a review of the treatment given in IRE to issues pertaining to data generation and usage in educational policy to identify not only salient topics, but also the way in which issues pertaining to the field of “data” (and the field as such) are framed. Thus, the article will not be restricted to giving an account of what has been published by IRE and will suggest some theoretical and policy-related considerations on measuring in the field of educational policy disentangling what lies behind maxims like “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it”, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”, or “nobody grew taller by being measured” and, finally, it will suggest some prospective thoughts on the relationship between “data” and what we value or should value in education.

Author

• César Guadalupe, Universidad Del Pacífico / Ciup