New public management and the neo-liberal principles that sustain it have driven performance agendas in government across Europe and beyond. This has produced a loss of the traditional role of education in creating a coherent and persuasive collective myth of belonging, identity or purpose. This chapter discusses current developments in the policy…

In England, over the last decade, powerful technologies and software have enabled a new way of governing education through performance data. This has allowed the landscape of education to be reshaped. Its surface features continue but underneath new connections are made and older relations severed. Data flows travel between schools and central…