Datafication in Education in England: A children’s rights-based approach to human data interaction theory

This chapter begins with an exploration of what the concept of a post-digital society includes, the position of education within this, and its relevance for children and their rights. Exploring the notion of a children’s rights-based approach, the chapter seeks to unpick some of the complexities in this, before considering the three facets of Human Data Interaction theory; legibility, agency and negotiability. The key relevance here becomes the human-centred approach of HDI placing the human, or for this chapter’s purpose the child, at the centre of any future frameworks and decision making. Literature concerning the dataveillance and datafication of children within education in England is then explored before the presentation and discussion of a case study drawing on the author’s first-hand experiences. Ultimately, it is questioned what message is promoted by cognitive authorities such as teachers and government departments when they favour data generation that rejects the agency and negotiability aspects of HDI theory. The danger here is that developments in the postdigital society replicate old models of working, instead of informing new ways of being.