Repensando efeitos colaterais de responsabilização/accountability na educação. Resultados de um estudo multi-métodos em quatro sistemas escolares alemães

Based on a research project comprising data from an interview study and a survey with teachers and school principals in four German federal states (Bundesländer), this paper questions the claim that the side effects of accountability in education are bound to high-stakes contexts, and also provides evidence of side effects occurring in no- and low-stakes contexts. The findings suggest that side effects cannot be fully explained by certain implementation features of accountability regimes (e.g. high stakes), but should rather be understood as a result of implementation features as well as systematic effects of accountability in education.Basado en un proyecto de investigación que comprende datos de entrevistas y encuestas con profesores y directores de escuelas en cuatro Estados federados (Bundesländer), este trabajo cuestiona la afirmación de que los efectos secundarios de rendición de cuentas en educación están limitados a contextos de gran repercusión (high-stakes) y también proporciona evidencias de efectos secundarios que ocurren en contextos de baja o sin repercussion (low-stakes). Los resultados sugieren que los efectos secundarios no pueden explicarse completamente por ciertas características de la aplicación de los regímenes de rendición de cuentas por ejemplo de gran repercusión, pero debe entenderse más bien como ambos: como resultado de características de implementación y como efectos sistemáticos de rendición de cuentas en la educación. Baseado em um projeto de pesquisa que abrange dados de entrevistas e questionários com professores e diretores de escolas em quatro unidades da federação alemã (Bundesländer), este texto questiona a alegação de que os efeitos colaterais de responsabilização/accountability na educação estão vinculados aos contextos onde há sançoes (high-stakes) e também traz evidências dos efeitos que ocorrem em contextos com menores ou sem consequencias (low-stakes). Os resultados sugerem que efeitos colaterais não podem ser totalmente explicados por certas características de implementação de regimes de responsabilidade, por exemplo, high-stakes, mas antes devem ser entendidos como ambos: como resultado de características de implementação e como efeitos sistemáticos de responsabilização na educação

The Digital Constellation

The emergence of the digital society has become one of the most pressing research topics in social science. So far, political science has been at the margins of the debate because it has been restricted by a rather narrow focus on networked communications. The paper attempts to change this by presenting a more encompassing way to address digitalisation from within political science. After briefly criticising the development of the research in political science the paper reconstructs at length some of the most popular conceptualisations in neighbouring disciplines. While we highlight the commonalities and strengths of those approaches in theorising digitalisation, we criticise their rather derivative understanding of democratic practices and the political as such. We go on to propose a modified understanding - which we term the "digital constellation" - that looks at the changing shape of democracy by developing a much more nuanced understanding of the interplay between societies and technologies. Finally, we illustrate the argument in an exemplary analysis of the changes occurring in political representation in the context of digitalisation

Widerstand und die Formierung von Ordnung in der digitalen Konstellation

Wird digitaler Widerstand in der Politischen Theorie zum Thema, so meist mit einem Fokus auf (neue) Formen zivilen Ungehorsams wie Hacktivismus. Der Aufsatz bietet hierzu eine Alternative, indem er das Betrachtungsfeld so ausweitet, dass neben diesen Formen auch Strategien des netzpolitischen Protests und der Schaffung alternativen Infrastrukturen in den Blick genommen werden. Die systematisierende und vergleichende Analyse der Entwicklung von Widerstandsformen in der digitalen Konstellation erlaubt es, die Dynamik des Zusammenwirkens von Ordnung und Widerstand besser zu verstehen. Hieraus erwächst eine Kritik der Formierung von Herrschaft in der Gegenwart, welche die depolitisierende Restrukturierung von Handlungsund Möglichkeitsräumen für gesellschaftliche Akteur*innen im Umgang mit digitaler Technik herausarbeitet, was eine politiktheoretische Ergänzung der Kritik von Überwachungspotentialen und Privatisierungstendenzen erzeugt.When Political Theory has dealt with digital resistance, it has almost exclusively focused on novel forms of civil disobedience. This article argues that a broader understanding of resistance, which includes digitally focused political mobilization as well as the creation of alternative infrastructure, allows us to better understand the formation of order in the digital constellation. By analyzing and comparing different approaches used to counter the emergent digital order, we show the vital importance of the depoliticizing effects embedded in new forms of (digital) domination and expand the normative reflection of digital societies as subject to surveillance and/or privatization

Die digitale Konstellation: eine Positionsbestimmung

Die Entwicklung der digitalen Gesellschaft ist in den Sozialwissenschaften zu einem zentralen Forschungsgegenstand aufgestiegen; in der Politikwissenschaft gilt allerdings, dass die Auseinandersetzung auf eher wenige Schwerpunkte - insbesondere Digitalisierung als vernetzte Kommunikation - beschränkt geblieben ist. Der Beitrag macht einen Vorschlag für eine andere Form der politikwissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung indem er - nach einer kritischen Rekonstruktion der Forschungsentwicklung in der Politikwissenschaft - breit rezipierte Diagnosen der digitalen Gesellschaft in Nachbardisziplinen wie der Soziologie und Rechtswissenschaft (Baecker, Nassehi, Reckwitz, Stalder und Vesting) rekonstruiert. Er arbeitet übergreifende Erkenntnisse im Digitalisierungsverständnis dieser Ansätze heraus, kritisiert jedoch deren Konzeptualisierung von Politik und Demokratie. Auf dieser Grundlage wird sodann ein Vorschlag unterbreitet, eine in der Politikwissenschaft anschlussfähigere Perspektive mittels des Konzepts der "digitalen Konstellation" zu entwickeln. Dieses untersucht das Wechselspiel technischer und gesellschaftlicher Entwicklungen in Bezug auf den Zusammenhang zum Formwandel von Demokratie. Abschließend wird dies in einer exemplarischen Analyse von Veränderungen des Repräsentationskonzepts im digitalen Kontext veranschaulicht.The emergence of the digital society has become one of the most pressing research topics in social science. So far political science has been at the margins of the debate being restricted by a rather narrow focus on networked communications. The paper attempts to change this by presenting a more encompassing way to thematize digitalization from within political science. After briefly having criticized the research development in political science the paper reconstructs at length some of the most popular conceptualizations in neighboring disciplines. While we highlight the commonalities and strengths of those approaches in theorizing digitalization, we criticize their rather derivative understanding of democratic practices and the political as such.We go on to propose a modified understanding - labeled the "digital constellation" - that looks at the changing shape of democracy by developing a much more nuanced understanding of the interplay of societies and technology. Finally, the argument is illustrated by a short exemplary analysis of the changes occurring in political representation in the context of digitalization

Some Lessons Learned Running Virtual Reality Experiments Out of the Laboratory

In the past twelve months, our team has had to move rapidly from conducting most of our user experiments in a laboratory setting, to running experiments in the wild away from the laboratory and without direct synchronous oversight from an experimenter. This has challenged us to think about what types of experiment we can run, and to improve our tools and methods to allow us to reliably capture the necessary data. It has also offered us an opportunity to engage with a more diverse population than we would normally engage with in the laboratory. In this position paper we elaborate on the challenges and opportunities, and give some lessons learned from our own experience

How dopamine shapes representations in auditory cortex

The neural representation of sound in the auditory cortex is not invariably predetermined by its  acoustical properties, but it is constantly reshaped while the listener acquires new experiences. Such plastic changes are a prerequisite for lifelong learning and allow some degree of rehabilitation after brain injuries. Several neurotransmitter systems modulate these plastic changes. In this paper, we focus on how the neurotransmitter dopamine modulates learning-related plasticity in auditory cortex, and how animal and human research can complement each other in providing an experimental approach that has relevance for studying mechanisms of recovery of functio

Comparison of T-cell receptor repertoire restriction in blood and tumor tissue of colorectal cancer patients

Several immunotherapeutic approaches rely on antigen-specific T-cells. Restrictions in the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire were reported as indicator of anti-tumor cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response in various tumor entities. It is unclear yet whether a TCR restriction in peripheral blood mirrors the tumor compartment. We compared the expression of TCR Vβ-families for the quantification of TCR repertoire alterations in blood and tissue samples from patients with colorectal carcinoma. Blood samples from patients with colorectal carcinoma and healthy volunteers and tissue samples of normal colonic mucosa and colorectal carcinoma were analyzed. Relative Vβ-family quantification was performed based on quantitative reverse transcribed PCR. Standard deviation and average mean of the single families were determined. Two variables describing the degree of Vβ-repertoire restriction were defined. Forty-eight blood samples and 37 tissue samples were analyzed. TCR repertoire restriction was higher in blood of tumor patients than in blood of healthy controls (p < 0.05). No difference in the degree of TCR repertoire restriction was found between carcinoma and unaffected colon tissue. We found no corresponding elevated TCR families among the different compartments blood, normal colon, and carcinoma tissue of the same patient. In conclusion, we observed a repertoire restriction in peripheral blood as well as in tumor tissue of cancer patients. However, in tumor tissue, repertoire alterations were comparable to normal mucosa, suggesting compartment-specific TCR distribution rather than alterations due to tumor-T-cell interaction questioning the presence of highly restricted clonal T-cell expansions in colorectal cancer as they have been described in other, assumingly more immunogenic tumor entities