Educational Research - the Ethics and Aesthetics of Statistics

More documents

Recommendations

Info

188 I. Munday We might also note that advocates of performativity may mount a defence in regard to some of the claims made during the section ‘fixing the stats’. The fact that some schools do not possess cohorts expected to achieve 30% 5 GCSEs is no excuse for failure. Schools in the lowest income bracket have managed this, so every school should be capable of success. If schools cannot attract teachers then it is their own fault for being so ineffective and if physical education teachers are the only people who command enough respect to teach literacy and numeracy skills, then why not let them do it (teachers should be facilitators shouldn’t they?). Are history, geography and physical education that necessary to the future careers or general functioning of students’ lives or indeed the functioning of society? Is the notion that a liberal education will be the best kind of education either coherent or sufficiently up to date? Perhaps it is better that students take courses more in keeping with either their dispositions or ability levels. Maybe insisting that some students take vocational courses helps them to save them from themselves. That way, at least they might get some form of qualification to put in their portfolios at the end of their schooling. If vocational courses really are easier to do, well, then, this problem can be ironed out by making them more difficult. There is an ethical aspect to this kind of defence. Schools should be accommodating their ‘clients’ needs and demands. It can be shown that ‘failing’ schools are failing their students. We might note here that this defence is predicated on a number of assumptions regarding (1) what good teaching is, (2) what is good for students, (3) what is good for society and (4) the importance of being ‘contemporary’ or ‘fashionable’. Such assumptions mark the metaphysics of presence as it inscribed through performativity. They are haunted by what may arrive – the ‘arrivant’ is also a ‘revenant’. Let us also note that easy equivalent GCSE courses have been offered for years now. It seems unlikely that they will be made more difficult. Lastly let us note that statistics need words (words, that is that are not numbers) to humanise them. Though this often takes the rather inhuman form of the ‘slogan’, slogans like all uses of language will contain elements that are iterable, their past and future contexts belong to them. The suturing effects of the marriage of statistics and slogans will not prevent language from bleeding. This chapter celebrates such bleeding not in the name of humanism, but rather in the name of the ‘inhuman’ other that may arrive at any time. References Bearn, G. (2000). The university of beauty. In P. Dhillon & P. Standish (Eds.), Lyotard: Just education (pp. 230–258). London: Routledge. Biesta, J. J. (2009). Witnessing deconstruction in education: Why quasi-transcendentalism matters. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 43, 391–404. Derrida, J. (1988). Limited Inc. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Derrida, J. (1997). Of grammatology. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Lyotard, J. -F. (1984). The postmodern condition. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Standish, P. (2005). Towards an economy of higher education. Critical Quarterly, 47, 53–71. Standish, P. (2010). Calling education to account. In P. Smeyers & M. Depaepe (Eds.), Educational research: The ethics and aesthetics of statistics (pp. 207–216). Dordrecht: Springer.
Chapter 13 A Bubble for the Spirit Level: Metricophilia, Rhetoric and Philosophy Richard Smith We must lobby for energetic, unencumbered collection of epidemiologic data—from surveillance to association studies to clinical trials—on the basis that such data will bring future benefits. Would the public want to give up avian influenza surveillance? Are our communities happy to continue to add chemicals to the environment and never conduct human studies to assess their potential toxicity? Would people vote for public policies and accept medical interventions based solely on results in rats? Ness and Rothenberg (2007) On you go now! Run, son, like the devil And tell your mother to try To find me a bubble for the spirit level And a new knot for this tie. Seamus Heaney, The Errand 13.1 Introduction: The Measurement of Love In this chapter I shall be critical of the craving for statistics and measurement in social science, the faith that they always and without question give us the answers on which to base policy in education as in other areas of life: it is therefore important to emphasise from the start that I am not against statistics, only the craving for them and unreflective faith in them. It is much the same as with the more familiar case of science. Without science our lives would be vastly less safe and less comfortable. It is common to instance dentistry as a knock-down example; and when I travel in an airplane I expect the science of aerodynamics to get me there in one piece. But this does not justify scientism, the colonising by science of every other form of thought and the assumption that whatever problem we have, the solution can only be in some way a scientific one. R. Smith (B) University of Durham, Durham, UK P. Smeyers, M. Depaepe (eds.), Educational Research: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Statistics, Educational Research 5, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9873-3_13, C○ Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 189
Page 2 and 3:
Educational Research: The Ethics an
Page 4 and 5:
Paul Smeyers · Marc Depaepe Editor
Page 6:
Earlier Volumes in this Series Educ
Page 9:
viii Contents 10 The Good, the Beau
Page 12 and 13:
2 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe their a
Page 14 and 15:
4 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe more fo
Page 16 and 17:
6 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe The cha
Page 18 and 19:
8 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe concern
Page 20 and 21:
10 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe appear
Page 23 and 24:
Chapter 2 The Lure of Statistics fo
Page 25 and 26:
2 The Lure of Statistics for Educat
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35:
Page 38 and 39:
28 M. Depaepe of the Leuven Catholi
Page 40 and 41:
30 M. Depaepe Tan’s final verdict
Page 42 and 43:
32 M. Depaepe of methodological bot
Page 44 and 45:
34 M. Depaepe tapping other sources
Page 46 and 47:
36 M. Depaepe In the context of dem
Page 48 and 49:
38 M. Depaepe combination. Moreover
Page 50 and 51:
40 M. Depaepe 4. See Pelleriaux (19
Page 52 and 53:
42 M. Depaepe Schneider, J. (2010).
Page 54 and 55:
44 J.J.H. Dekker (see Section 4.4).
Page 56 and 57:
46 J.J.H. Dekker from their own par
Page 58 and 59:
48 J.J.H. Dekker a cohort study tha
Page 60 and 61:
50 J.J.H. Dekker child” (Van IJze
Page 62 and 63:
52 J.J.H. Dekker USA resulted in ev
Page 64 and 65:
54 J.J.H. Dekker of the problem”.
Page 66 and 67:
56 J.J.H. Dekker Dekker. J. J. H.,
Page 69 and 70:
Chapter 5 Constructing Social Unity
Page 71 and 72:
5 Constructing Social Unity and Pre
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Chapter 6 n = 1: The Science and Ar
Page 91 and 92:
6 n = 1: The Science and Art of the
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Chapter 7 To Frame the Unframable:
Page 109 and 110:
7 To Frame the Unframable: Quantify
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Chapter 8 European Citizenship and
Page 127 and 128:
8 European Citizenship and Evidence
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137:
Page 140 and 141:
130 U. Stadler-Altmann and E. Keine
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149: 138 U. Stadler-Altmann and E. Keine
Page 156 and 157: 146 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. quite
Page 158 and 159: 148 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. expres
Page 160 and 161: 150 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. This i
Page 162 and 163: 152 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. A good
Page 164 and 165: 154 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. Day wi
Page 166 and 167: 156 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. statis
Page 168 and 169: 158 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. 10.4 C
Page 170 and 171: 160 J.P. Van Bendegem et al. Van Be
Page 172 and 173: 162 P. Smeyers to be told. Moreover
Page 174 and 175: 164 P. Smeyers us’. It goes witho
Page 176 and 177: 166 P. Smeyers at the basis of the
Page 178 and 179: 168 P. Smeyers indeterminism, as we
Page 180 and 181: 170 P. Smeyers are steps (a plan as
Page 182 and 183: 172 P. Smeyers to the simple fact t
Page 184 and 185: 174 P. Smeyers 6. The role of the a
Page 186 and 187: 176 P. Smeyers conditions. It is in
Page 188 and 189: 178 I. Munday etc. on a PowerPoint
Page 190 and 191: 180 I. Munday To show how Derrida p
Page 192 and 193: 182 I. Munday might talk of 20 bags
Page 194 and 195: 184 I. Munday is unclear whether th
Page 196 and 197: 186 I. Munday in numerals. This mig
Page 200 and 201: 190 R. Smith ‘Statisticism’, on
Page 202 and 203: 192 R. Smith identify, and twice in
Page 204 and 205: 194 R. Smith of the final sentence
Page 206 and 207: 196 R. Smith between admitting that
Page 208 and 209: 198 R. Smith 7 www.equalitytrust.or
Page 210 and 211: 200 R. Smith It is an interesting q
Page 212 and 213: 202 R. Smith self-esteem, happiness
Page 214 and 215: 204 R. Smith Reeves, R. (2009, Apri
Page 216 and 217: 206 P. Standish Some students’ no
Page 218 and 219: 208 P. Standish abstract ratio, wit
Page 220 and 221: 210 P. Standish Rice $1.73 1 / 2 Mo
Page 222 and 223: 212 P. Standish research none of us
Page 224 and 225: 214 P. Standish of the products but
Page 226 and 227: 216 About the Authors co-editor-in-
Page 228 and 229: 218 About the Authors voor Wetensch
Page 230 and 231: 220 Author Index Elkins, G. R., 190
Page 232 and 233: 222 Author Index Silverman, J. G.,
Page 234: 224 Subject Index I Inequality, 29-
show all

Educational Research - the Ethics and Aesthetics of Statistics

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?