Quantification and classification in education: What is at stake?
Peer reviewed, Journal article
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Date
2021Metadata
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Nilsen, A. C. E. Skarpenes, O. (2021). Quantification and classification in education: What is at stake? Policy Futures in Education, 20(1), 120-134. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103211032049Abstract
Histories of statistics and quantification have demonstrated that systems of statistical knowledge
participate in the construction of the objects that are measured. However, the pace, purpose, and
scope of quantification in state bureaucracy have expanded greatly over the past decades, fuelled
by (neoliberal) societal trends that have given the social phenomenon of quantification a central
place in political discussions and in the public sphere. This is particularly the case in the field of
education. In this article, we ask what is at stake in state bureaucracy, professional practice, and
individual pupils as quantification increasingly permeates the education field. We call for a theoretical renewal in order to understand quantification as a social phenomenon in education. We
propose a sociology-of-knowledge approach to the phenomenon, drawing on different theoretical traditions in the sociology of knowledge in France (Alain Desrosi eres and Laurent Th evenot),
England (Barry Barnes and Donald MacKenzie), and Canada (Ian Hacking), and argue that the
ongoing quantification practice at different levels of the education system can be understood as
cultural processes of self-fulfilling prophecies.