Datafication in the First Year of Schooling

Abstract

Schools collect enormous amounts of data, including in children’s first year of formal schooling. Having ‘data’ has sometimes been seen as a panacea, enabling teachers and school systems to quickly get to know children transitioning from preschool to school. However, there are recognised negative effects of datafication, including the “schoolification” of early years education, time impositions on teachers, and the potential for data to create deficit views of children. We present research with teachers and policy officers in a School Authority in Queensland, Australia. Utopia as Method was used to understand the dangers and potentials of data as school staff worked to create systems supporting quality early years teaching. We make a case for disrupting taken-for-granted practices and assumptions about data in favour of listening to teachers’ needs and hopes as they consider how data can best support their teaching of diverse children.