Four Schools of Scholarly Thought About Data Use/Performance Indicators

KnowledgeTransferSchool / ModalTechnologiesSchool / SocialConstructivistSchool / EnlightenmentSchool
Scholars / Bradley, Patton, Rich, Oh, Hambleton, Wainer / Foucault, Cameron & Neu, Rose, Miller, Barnetsen & Boberg / Earl, Cousins, Leithwood, Roth &McGinn / Weiss, Bucuvalas, Darling-Hammond, Best
Definition of Data / Data are concentrated accumulations of empirically gathered observations / Measures-dataare medium for expressing power by government authority / Data are socially constructed artifacts for drawing small groups together and transcending social boundaries / Data is a form of news for public education purposes to allow people to update mental maps of social world
Central Assumptions / Meaning resides in the graphed data
Unilinear direction of use from data-creator to end-reader / Meaning is dictated by central authority as technique of control, surveillance
Both act of measuring and disseminating results control the reader / Meaning arises in the social communications associated with constructing or reconstructing the graph
Local data collection and dissemination foster professional knowledge / Meaning is fluid and indeterminate
Rigid research models and systems thinking are inappropriate
Numeric data is central to democratic decision-making; challenging tradition and status quo;creating translatability
View of causality in conception of data use / Successionist or lever (Inductive)
Often a counterfactual model of causation / Modal control
(Deductive); both measurement and means for communicating the data control outlooks and behaviour
Often a singularist view of causation (teleologic) / Generative
(Abductive)-spark new knowledge or understanding in local situation / Catalytic: general social (mis) understanding titrates out in applications of data to diverse situations
Apprehended functions of data or performance statistics in educational sector / Measurement and data are accumulations of knowledge
Useful as means for prediction, model-building, validating / Measurement act and resulting data are techniques for controlling and disciplining
Useful for reducing complexity, constituting alternative realities, and subordinating / Graphed data are devices for building collective skills and understanding, communicating across social boundaries, supporting interpersonal relations in small community setting
Useful for making hunches, diagnosing, establishing scenarios, looking for clues, explaining / Measurement and data are mainly useful for pre-policy clarification and framing issues
Data is type of currency used in socio-educational policy development and business to negotiate for resources, facilitate business and educational transactions
Frequent recommendations / Increase the size of the N
Employ more rigorous designs to increase validity, generalizability, reliability
Increase accessibility of graphic material / Eliminate measurement
Deconstruct graphs for hidden assumptions and power relationships
Critique centers of calculation / Increase access to original data sets or disaggregations so that new graphs can be constructed for local purposes
Offer more professional development in data analysis and team-building skills / Increase numeracy of general population
Abandon systems models and distinctions between means and ends
Create higher quality data to illuminate issues, resolve social problems and create new frames of reference
View of Context / Factor or variable to be neutralized or sharply circumscribed / Text and context are identical / Contingent (co-dependent) relationship between data and immediate environment in which it used); another text / Circumstantial
(adventitious or fortuitous);various according to interests and positions around issue.
--Happenstance--
Predominate view of decision-Maker/decision-making / Rational actor / Machiavellian prince models / Small group collegial decision-making models / Bureaucratic models where interests, ideology and information collide
Decisions accrete

Darryl Hunter

Evidence-based Policy Making and Indicators Systems Conference,

RegentsParkLondonUK July 11, 2006