The mundane governance of education through time: the case of national testing in Norway

Ida Martinez Lunde, Nelli Piattoeva

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
5 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article explores national testing in Norway by analyzing technical and bureaucratic documents steering the process of data production. By examining documents through sociological perspectives on time, as well as attuning to the form and genre of the documents, we identify bureaucratic, sociotechnical, and genre-specific ways in which data production is structured to ensure a smooth process of testing. We find that national tests govern (through) time and by ordering time: their time rules produce simultaneity and synchronicity that in turn gently nudge schools and municipalities into alignment. Thus, time rules and routines enable forms of mundane governance that mirror how contemporary education policy happens through short but more prescriptive (and increasingly digital) policy texts. This is how national authorities may make themselves less detectable, but ever more present and productive of national unity. While recent conversations on time and temporality focus on the emergence of complex, non-linear (e.g. networked) time enabled by the digital transformation of society and education, our article attests to the persistence and significance of linear temporalities in and for education governance, and shows how quantification, assessment, bureaucracy and the affordances of digital technologies together play pivotal roles in upholding a linear time order.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCRITICAL STUDIES IN EDUCATION
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 16 May 2024
Publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • documents
  • large-scale assessments
  • national tests
  • sociology of time
  • Temporality

Publication forum classification

  • Publication forum level 2

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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