IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/polsoc/v41y2022i4p445-457..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The education Sustainable Development Goal and the generative power of failing metrics
[The Learning Metrics Task Force 2.0: Taking the Global Dialogues on Measuring Learning to the Country Level]

Author

Listed:
  • Sotiria Grek

Abstract

The article traces the development of the epistemic infrastructure of the education sustainable development goal (SDG) in order to examine the ways that the incremental buildup of the discourse, technical expertise, and necessary—although always fragile—alliances facilitated a paradigmatic policy shift in the field of education: This is the move from the measurement of schooling to the measurement of learning. Through an analytical lens that examines the entanglement of the material, semiotic, and political and temporal/spatial elements of the infrastructure, the article shows how the sustainable development goal 4 (SDG4) as an epistemic infrastructure enabled a fundamental reorientation in the field of global education governance. The article discusses the ways that quantification, despite—and often thanks to—its failings, folded contested discourses, decision-making, politics, and ideas into its processes. Thus, the paper argues that the making of the SDG4 represents a paradigmatic policy shift; one that is not only to be traced in the move from schooling to the policy prioritization of learning outcomes but also in the very production of global public policy through the work of the SDGs as epistemic infrastructures.

Suggested Citation

  • Sotiria Grek, 2022. "The education Sustainable Development Goal and the generative power of failing metrics [The Learning Metrics Task Force 2.0: Taking the Global Dialogues on Measuring Learning to the Country Level]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 445-457.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:polsoc:v:41:y:2022:i:4:p:445-457.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/polsoc/puac020
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven J. Klees & Nelly P. Stromquist & Joel Samoff & Salim Vally, 2019. "The 2018 World Development Report on Education: A Critical Analysis," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 603-620, March.
    2. Elaine Unterhalter, 2019. "The Many Meanings of Quality Education: Politics of Targets and Indicators in SDG4," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 39-51, January.
    3. Sakiko Fukuda‐Parr & Desmond McNeill, 2019. "Knowledge and Politics in Setting and Measuring the SDGs: Introduction to Special Issue," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 5-15, January.
    4. Barro, Robert J & Lee, Jong Wha, 1996. "International Measures of Schooling Years and Schooling Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 218-223, May.
    5. Tikly, Leon, 2015. "What works, for whom, and in what circumstances? Towards a critical realist understanding of learning in international and comparative education," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 237-249.
    6. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    7. Jerik Hanushek & Dennis Kimko, 2006. "Schooling, Labor-force Quality, and the Growth of Nations," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 154-193.
    8. Deon Filmer & Amer Hasan & Lant Pritchett, 2006. "A Millennium Learning Goal: Measuring Real Progress in Education," Working Papers 97, Center for Global Development.
    9. Susan Leigh Star & Karen Ruhleder, 1996. "Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 111-134, March.
    10. Marlee Tichenor & Sally E Merry & Sotiria Grek & Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Global public policy in a quantified world: Sustainable Development Goals as epistemic infrastructures [The ethics of a formula: Calculating a financial-humanitarian price for water]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 431-444.
    11. Paul Glewwe, 2002. "Schools and Skills in Developing Countries: Education Policies and Socioeconomic Outcomes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 436-482, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Magdalena Bexell, 2024. "Indicator accountability or policy shrinking? Multistakeholder partnerships in reviews of the sustainable development goals," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(2), pages 276-287, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marlee Tichenor, 2022. "Statistical capacity development and the production of epistemic infrastructures [The millennium development goals: A critique from the south]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 541-554.
    2. Justyna Bandola‐Gill, 2023. "Our common metrics? Our Common Agenda report and the epistemic infrastructure of the Sustainable Development Goals," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(S2), pages 8-12, March.
    3. Michael S. Delgado & Daniel J. Henderson & Christopher F. Parmeter, 2014. "Does Education Matter for Economic Growth?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 76(3), pages 334-359, June.
    4. Thor Olav Iversen, 2023. "Boundary experts: Science and politics in measuring the Sustainable Development Goals," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(4), pages 600-610, September.
    5. MacFeely Steve, 2020. "Measuring the Sustainable Development Goal Indicators: An Unprecedented Statistical Challenge," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(2), pages 361-378, June.
    6. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani & Russell D. Murphy, 2006. "Labor market flexibility and investment in human capital," Working Papers e06-5, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Economics.
    7. Eftimoski, Dimitar, 2022. "On the inconclusive effect of human capital on growth: A new look at extended specifications," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 708-727.
    8. MacFeely Steve, 2020. "Measuring the Sustainable Development Goal Indicators: An Unprecedented Statistical Challenge," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(2), pages 361-378, June.
    9. Fukuda-Parr Sakiko & Smaavik Hegstad Thea, 2018. "“Leaving No One Behind” as a Site of Contestation and Reinterpretation," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    11. John Beirne & Nauro F. Campos, 2007. "Educational inputs and outcomes before the transition from communism," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15(1), pages 57-76, January.
    12. Hideki Toya & Mark Skidmore & Raymond Robertson, 2010. "A Reevaluation of the Effect of Human Capital Accumulation on Economic Growth Using Natural Disasters as an Instrument," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 120-137.
    13. Elena Meschi & Francesco Scervini, 2014. "A new dataset on educational inequality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 695-716, September.
    14. Audra J. Bowlus & Haoming Liu & Chris Robinson, 2005. "Human Capital, Productivity and Growth," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 20052, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    15. Schiffbauer, Marc, 2006. "Theoretical and methodological study on the role of public policies in fostering innovation and growth," Papers DYNREG04, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    16. Carmela Elita Schillaci & Marco Romano & Melita Nicotra, 2012. "Science Parks and Entrepreneurship: Enhancing Territorial Absorptive Capacity in a Hostile Region," DSI Essays Series, DSI - Dipartimento di Studi sull'Impresa, vol. 28.
    17. Rivera, Luis & Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo, 2009. "Human Capital Formation and the Linkage between Trade and Poverty: The Cases of Costa Rica and Nicaragua," Conference papers 331887, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    18. Bai, Caiquan & Sun, Zhang & Feng, Chen & Xiao, Weiwei, 2024. "Human capital and cooking fuel choices in rural China: Perspective from cognitive and noncognitive skills," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    19. Nadir ALTINOK, 2017. "Analyse critique et méthodologique des données d‘éducation de l’Afrique subsaharienne," Working Paper 688bd54b-760c-443b-8343-7, Agence française de développement.
    20. Garett Jones & W. Schneider, 2006. "Intelligence, Human Capital, and Economic Growth: A Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) Approach," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 71-93, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:polsoc:v:41:y:2022:i:4:p:445-457.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/policyandsociety .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.