Governing by Numbers

This book critically addresses some of the ways in which test results, performance statistics and other forms of big data are deployed in educational governance and practice, and some of the consequences of this deployment for what it means to be educated, to teach, and to learn. Recognising that numbers do not simply represent, but that they have real effects, allows us to move beyond a system where important issues about what we want from education are side-stepped in the push to ‘improve our numbers’. This collection explores how numbers change the way we think about ourselves and what we do. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education Policy.