ERIC Number: EJ1068023
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0159-6306
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Becoming-Topologies of Education: Deformations, Networks and the Database Effect
Thompson, Greg; Cook, Ian
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, v36 n5 p732-748 2015
This article uses topological approaches to suggest that education is becoming-topological. Analyses presented in a recent double-issue of "Theory, Culture & Society" are used to demonstrate the utility of topology for education. In particular, the article explains education's topological character through examining the global convergence of education policy, testing and the discursive ranking of systems, schools and individuals in the promise of reforming education through the proliferation of regimes of testing at local and global levels that constitute a new form of governance through data. In this conceptualisation of global education policy changes in the form and nature of testing combine with it the emergence of global policy network to change the nature of the local (national, regional, school and classroom) forces that operate through the "system". While these forces change, they work through a discursivity that produces disciplinary effects, but in a different way. This new-old disciplinarity, or "database effect", is here represented through a topological approach because of its utility for conceiving education in an increasingly networked world.
Descriptors: Educational Policy, Testing, Educational Change, Governance, Data Collection, Global Approach, Topology, Educational Practices, Networks, Evaluation, Databases
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A