The imperative to protect data and the rise of surveillance cameras in administering national testing in Russia

Abstract

This article discusses the effects of the datafication and digitalisation of education policy in the context of the Russian Federation. It taps into the policies and practices invented as a result of rising audit cultures and the scientisation and datafication of education governance. These processes turn sites of public examinations into sites of numerical data production on education, and make school systems accountable to data production. The article draws on the notions of power and the non-human object, as developed by Actor-Network-Theory scholars, in order to make sense of the recent introduction of obligatory video surveillance equipment during public examinations. The article argues that demands for accountability and data objectivity have led to a complex surveillance regime -a surveillance assemblage -that leads to intensifying observation through various technical means and new data, i.e. data on data production. Video surveillance is called upon to act as a mediator that translates and holds parts of the fragile assessment-network together by coercing each participant into the role of docile data producer. The introduction of video surveillance manifests and endorses a deep mistrust of the human being, translates data objectivity into a procedural matter and opens up new business opportunities for commercial surveillance and security sectors.

Towards a topological re-assemblage of education policy? Observing the implementation of performance data infrastructures and ‘centers of calculation’ in Germany

“…Within such technical zones of human-data interaction, material infrastructures are co-created with specific rules, norms and values, ultimately bringing about a new 'digital economy of scale' within 'cybergeographies' (Goodchild 2004;Ong and Collier 2005, 11). 4Consequently, topological assemblage thinking takes up various ideas of Actor Network Theory, as substantiated by Latour, Woolgar or Callon (Bousquet 2013;Bureš 2015, 15;Färber 2014, 95;Piattoeva 2016). In particular, assemblages are not understood as solely 'including' individuals, but rather, through the establishment of particular topologies and visibilities, as 'creating' them.…”

“…But also many non-western countries, such as the Russian Federation, have radically intensified the datafication and digitalisation of education policy, which in the case of Russia led to a complex surveillance regime, including an intensified production of 'data on data production' (Piattoeva 2016).…”

Layers of reflectivity in comparative research

“…We analysed national plans from 1980 to 2010 and the ten-year plan for the period from 2010 to 2020, which aims to transform schools' examination and evaluation culture. We also analysed the Law of Compulsory Education (1986, 2006, and 2015), the annual work plans of the Ministry of Education from 2007 to 2016, Supervision Decrees (1991and 2012, and National Supervision Reports from 2005 to 2015. Apart from these documents, we analysed the websites of the Ministry of Education, NAEQ and sub-national level bureaus of education, and the public speeches of national leaders and the minister.…”

“…The head of the agency who denied us access had succeeded another young functionary who held his post for only a year and was dismissed for allegedly failing to combat high levels of cheating in examinations. Our project started when the current leader had held his post for a year and was perhaps mindful of his predecessor's fate (see Piattoeva 2016;Piattoeva 2017). This and other situations alerted us to the importance of paying attention to the agendas and interests of active or passive research participants in relation to fieldworkers and the overall research topic.…”

Revisiting Pasts, Reimagining Futures: Memories of (Post)Socialist Childhood and Schooling

“…For those who supported Nalepa's claim that cheating was characteristic of (post)socialist systems but not the Western ones, it behooves to remember the cheating scandals that erupted in the context of the neoliberal testing regimes in Atlanta, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and Houston, where teachers and administrators fabricated test results to avoid punishment for low results (Goldstein, 2011). At the same time, the cheating incidents involving students and teachers, frequently reported in the Russian media and condemned by politicians and education experts, have all occurred in the context of the recently introduced standardized testing for school graduates and the application of testing scores for performance steering-all fostered by Western development agencies as a replacement for what they perceived as a backward and subjective Soviet examination practice and irrational policy-making (Piattoeva, 2016). Educators' and students' attempts to "game the system" across various geographical contexts echo Stenning's (2010) observation that "we are all postsocialist now" (p. 239).…”