‘Scaling up’ educational change: some musings on misrecognition and doxic challenges

Educational policy-makers around the world are strongly committed to the notion of ‘scaling up’. This can mean anything from encouraging more teachers to take up a pedagogical innovation, all the way through to system-wide efforts to implement ‘what works’ across all schools. In this paper, I use Bourdieu’s notions of misrecognition to consider the current orthodoxies of scaling up. I argue that the focus on ‘process’ and ‘implementation problems’: (1) both obscures and legitimates the ways in which the field logics of practice actually work and, (2) produces/reproduces the inequitable distribution of educational benefits (capitals and life opportunities). I suggest that the notion of misrecognition might provide a useful lens through which to examine reform initiatives and explanations of their success/failure

The Use of Data across Countries: Development and Application of a Data Use Framework

Part 1: Why Do We Need New Educational Management Information Systems?International audiencePromising evidence exists that data-based decision-making can result in improvements in student achievement [1], but studies, e.g. [2], show that many schools do not use data properly. Support in the use of data is urgently needed. This chapter focuses on the design of a professional development course in the use of data. In the first phase of the project, case studies were conducted in five participating countries (England, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland and Lithuania) to develop a common data use framework. In the next phase, in two schools in each of the countries, a data use needs assessment was conducted using a survey. Finally, a professional development course was developed and implemented. Results of each of the phases are discussed in this paper