Ghosts of data futures past: revolution as repetition in datafied education research and governance

Abstract

Datafication discourses in education regularly present themselves as radical game changers in education governance and research arenas, transforming future forms of education. Thereby they also make a decisive break with past forms of education governance. As datafication is widely understood as a highly topical and transformative phenomenon, critical studies of datafication mostly focus on developments since the turn of the millennium, with less attention paid to focus on historical continuities. Using Foucauldian and Derridean theoretical approaches and taking history of Finnish educational research and governance as a case example, this paper explores the less studied data futures past – the ways in which the characteristics and role of quantitative data in future forms of educational research and governance is established. As an outcome, the paper argues that the history of datafication involves exclusions and repetitive gestures of promissory futures assuming a spectral, haunting presence.