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The 'datafication' of early years pedagogy: 'if the teaching is good, the data should be good and if there's bad teaching, there is bad data'

Roberts-Holmes, G; (2015) The 'datafication' of early years pedagogy: 'if the teaching is good, the data should be good and if there's bad teaching, there is bad data'. Journal of Education Policy , 30 (3) pp. 302-315. 10.1080/02680939.2014.924561. Green open access

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Abstract

Following the election of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat UK coalition Government in 2010, there has been an urgent intensification and focus upon early years numeracy and literacy and promoting systematic synthetic phonics. This paper argues that the current narrowing of early years assessment, along with increased inspection and surveillance, operates as a policy technology leading to an intensification of ‘school readiness’ pressures upon the earliest stage of education. The paper suggests that this governance has encouraged a functional ‘datafication’ of early years pedagogy so that early years teacher’s work is increasingly constrained by performativity demands to produce ‘appropriate’ data. The article argues that early years high-stakes national assessments act as a ‘meta-policy’, ‘steering’ early years pedagogy ‘from a distance’ and have the power to challenge, disrupt and constrain early years teacher’s deeply held child-centred pedagogical values.

Type: Article
Title: The 'datafication' of early years pedagogy: 'if the teaching is good, the data should be good and if there's bad teaching, there is bad data'
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/02680939.2014.924561
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2014.924561
Language: English
Additional information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Education Policy on 20 June 2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02680939.2014.924561.
Keywords: early years teachers, datafication, pedagogy, neo-liberal, assessment
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1474750
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