Educational data management - the transformation of knowledge, interdependence and power within the digitalization of educational governance

在世界范围内实施大规模教育改革的背景下，新的教育治理形式越来越受到社会和教育研究的关注。一方面，总体转变与不断增长的国际政策关系、网络和流动密切相关。另一方面，可以看到国家、市场和私人行为者之间同时出现新的互动模式，导致教育政策中的权力和监管的重新安排。这两种趋势都与通过新的、往往是数字化的信息技术和数据管理系统越来越多地制作、处理和使用教育数据密切相关，这些技术和系统旨在改善和加速教育知识在政治、行政和学校实践中的应用。虽然数据及其应用的重要性越来越多地被辩论和实证分析，但对数据基础设施的数字化形式及其对治理的影响的观察，特别是在德国的研究中，仍处于起步阶段。该项目侧重于在国家一级行政部门逐步实施集中数据管理系统，比较德国和美国。因此，数据的结构性去语境化和重新语境化（转化为决策信息和知识）是核心利益所在。因此，数据管理系统被分别作为新的空间维度和时间维度作为教育治理的新结构（吉登斯）进行分析。德国和美国作为对比同时也作为相似的案例出现。一方面，这两个国家的教育政策体制不同：德国是一个保守的、国家/行政和投入导向的教育体系，而美国是一个自由的、讨价还价和行政导向的教育体系，产出结构更多。事实上，这些差异似乎是高度相关的教育数据管理的新系统/基础设施的实施和配置。然而，另一方面，德国和美国都是联邦体制，历史上冲突不断，政策日益集中，遭到州/联邦州的反对。在这一点上，两国治理结构的数字化密集化似乎非常模糊。本项目通过将全球政策趋同问题与教育治理的数字化联系起来的多维度/多层次研究设计，为国际比较研究领域以及治理分析/关键政策研究领域做出了创新性贡献。

In the context of the ongoing worldwide implementation of large-scale educational reforms, new forms of educational governance have become of growing interest for social and educational research. On the one hand, the overall transformation is closely associated with growing international policy relations, networks and flows. On the other hand, a simultaneous emergence of new patterns of interaction between state, market and private actors can be observed, leading to a rearrangement of power and regulation in education policy. Both trends are closely related to an increasing fabrication, processing and usage of educational data through new, often digitalized information technologies and data management systems, designed to improve and accelerate the application of educational knowledge in politics, administration and school practice. While the importance of data and its application have become increasingly debated and analyzed empirically, the observation of the digital formations of data infrastructures and their impact on governance is, especially in German research, still in its infancy.The project focuses on the gradual implementation of centralized data management systems in state-level administration, comparing Germany and the United States. Hereby, the structural de- and recontextualization of data (into information and knowledge for decision-making) is of central interest. Data management systems are thus analyzed as new spatial and chronological dimensions respectively as new structurations (Giddens) of educational governance.Germany and the United States appear as contrasting and simultaneously as similar cases. On the one hand, the two countries mark different types of education policy regimes: Germany as a conservative, state/administration and input-led education system versus the US as a liberal, both bargaining- and administration-led education system with a lot more output structures. In fact, these differences appear to be highly relevant for the implementation and configuration of new systems/infrastructures of educational data management. However, on the other hand, both Germany and the US are federal systems with a history of constant conflict and growing policy centralization, opposed by the States/Bundesländer. In this regard, the gradual digital densification of governance structures in both countries appears as highly ambiguous.By applying a multi-dimensional/multi-level research design, which links the question of global policy convergence to the digitalization of educational governance, the project offers an innovative contribution to the field of international comparative research and also to the field of governance analysis/critical policy studies.