This paper raises a critical argument on the normativity of data-driven curriculum work shaping and reshaping education at all levels along an evaluative rationale. The critique evolves in two steps, the first step is deconstructive in character and draws on the work of Porter (1995) and research on data-driven curriculum work. The second step is reconstructive in character making use of the non-affirmative theory in education (Uljens & Ylimaki, 2015, 2017; Uljens, 2016, 2018) to elaborate on a more reflexive position. The critical examination shows how competitiveness, objectivity and distance operate as educational ideals within the discourse of data-driven curriculum work, narrowing the educational imagination to what can be expressed in league tables and ranking lists and promoting easy answers to complex questions of what works. These ideals are challenged by non-affirmative theory proposing a more reflexive approach to curriculum work emphasising process rather than outcome, and questions rather than answers as drivers of these processes.
Ej belagd 20191121