Unpacking Big Data in Education. A Research Framework

In: Statistics, Politics, and Policy, Band 8, Heft 2, S. 123-137

Abstract

Abstract
The use of big data represents a valuable way to inspire decision-making in a time of scarce resources. The technological revolution is in fact enabling governments to use a great variety of digital tools and data to manage all phases of the policy cycle process, becoming a core element for e-governance applications and techniques. However, research is seemingly not yet aligned yet with the hybrid environment that both public policies and politics are moving in, while the actors (old and new) and the decision-making processes themselves, in their searching for automation and objectivity, risk being overshadowed. Taking the case of Higher Education, this article proposes a research framework for big-data use to prompt the reflection on the power of "evidence" in decision making; to question and contextualize such evidences in a multimodal and integrated scenario, and to understand the challenges that data will pose to education both in terms of unforeseen and hidden effects.