Abstract
Pupils—the learners of both educational thought and of educational practice—exist ever more as data, as do the strictures and goals through which these pupils are pedagogically managed. I elaborate this thought by way of a single example: a particular kind of pupils whose number is reportedly on the increase, namely pupils diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In my analysis I combine Hacking’s nominalist conception of human kinds and Weber’s instrumental rationalism with recent thinking about the effects of digital technologies on social organising. Discussed in more detail is a key consequence from data playing a primary role in bringing together ADHD as coherent idea and practice: if ADHD is primarily the digital and instrumental product of psychiatry and education, so that ADHD is only secondarily a reliable description of behaviour, then what is to count as valid description of ADHD as behaviour will depend firstly upon the character and application of the existing database and not on actual behaviours among pupils. The article concludes with the observation that such technological products as ADHD seem notably at odds with traditional values in education. Traditional notions of education as a form of personable nurture for example seem to contrast with the instrumental disinterestedness of managing pupils as data flows. Given the latter, there seems rising need to theorise social reproduction by data and of data in contemporary education.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
I am grateful to a peer-reviewer of this article for alerting me to this important parallel found in Benjamin Baez’s book.
References
APA. 2013. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5, 5th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Baez, B. 2014. Technologies of government: Politics and power in the ‘Information Age’. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Batstra, L., and E.D. Thoutenhoofd. 2012. The risk that DSM-5 will further inflate the diagnostic bubble. Current Psychiatry Reviews 8(4): 260–263.
Batstra, L., and A. Frances. 2012. DSM-5 further inflates attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 200(6): 486–488. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e318257c4b6.
Bedard, K., and E. Dhuey. 2006. The persistence of early childhood maturity: International evidence of long-run age Effects. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(4): 1437–1472. doi:10.1093/qje/121.4.1437.
Boysen, G.A. 2011. Revision of the DSM and conceptual expansion of mental illess: An exploratory analysis of diagnostic criteria. The Journal of Mind and Behaviour 32(4): 295–315.
Boysen, G.A., and A. Ebersole. 2014. Expansion of the concept of mental disorder in the DSM-5. The Journal of Mind and Behaviour 35(4): 225–244.
Bransen, J. 2013. Laat je niets wijsmaken: over de macht van experts en de kracht van gezond verstand. Zoetermeer: Klement.
Brülde, B., and F. Radovic. 2006. What is mental about mental disorder? Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 13(2): 99–116. doi:10.1353/ppp.2007.0001.
Callon, M., and J. Law. 2005. On qualculation, agency, and otherness. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 23(5): 717–733. doi:10.1068/d343t.
Carvalho, L.M., and E. Costa. 2015. Seeing education with one’s own eyes and through PISA lenses: Considerations of the reception of PISA in European countries. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 36(5): 638–646. doi:10.1080/01596306.2013.871449.
Cohen, D. 2006. Critiques of the ‘ADHD’ enterprise. In Critical new perspectives on ADHD, ed. G. Lloyd, J. Stead, and D. Cohen, 12–33. London and New York: Routledge.
Crawford, C., L. Dearden, and E. Greaves. 2011. Does when you are born matter? The impact of month of birth on children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills in England. A report to the Nuffield Foundation. London: Nuffield Foundation.
Dalsgaard, S., H.S. Nielsen, and M. Simonsen. 2013. Five-fold increase in national prevalence rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medications for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and other psychiatric disorders: A Danish Register-Based Study. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 23(7): 432–439. doi:10.1089/cap.2012.0111.
Davis, A. 2008. Ian Hacking, learner categories and human taxonomies. Journal of Philosophy of Education 42(3–4): 441–455.
Dehue, T. 2008. De depressie-epidemie: over de plicht het lot in eigen hand te nemen. Amsterdam: Augustus.
DfE. 2015. Special educational needs in England: January 2015 (statistical first release). London: Department for Education.
Dupré, J. 2011. Foreword by John Dupré. In Carving nature at its joints: Natural kinds in metaphysics and science, ed. J.K. Campbell, M. O’Rourke, and M.H. Slater, vii–viii. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Du, Q., H. Gao, and M.D. Levi. 2012. The relative-age effect and career success: Evidence from corporate CEOs. Economics Letters 117(3): 660–662. doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2012.08.017.
EADSNE. 2008. Special needs education: Country data. Brussels: European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education.
EADSNE. 2012. Special needs education: Country data. Brussels: European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education.
Elberling, H., A. Linneberg, C. Ulrikka Rask, T. Houman, R. Goodman, and A. Mette Skovgaard. 2016. Psychiatric disorders in Danish children aged 5–7 years: A general population study of prevalence and risk factors from the Copenhagen Child Cohort (CCC 2000). Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 70(2): 146–155. doi:10.3109/08039488.2015.1070199.
Elder, T.E. 2010. The importance of relative standards in ADHD diagnoses: Evidence based on exact birth dates. Journal of Health Economics 29(5): 641–656. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2010.06.003.
Engel, L.C., and M.O. Frizzell. 2015. Competitive comparison and PISA bragging rights: Sub-national uses of the OECD’s PISA in Canada and the USA. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 36(5): 665–682. doi:10.1080/01596306.2015.1017446.
Evans, W.N., M.S. Morrill, and S.T. Parente. 2010. Measuring inappropriate medical diagnosis and treatment in survey data: The case of ADHD among school-age children. Journal of Health Economics 29(5): 657–673. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2010.07.005.
Gambrill, E. 2014. The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders as a major form of dehumanization in the modern world. Research on Social Work Practice 24(1): 13–36. doi:10.1177/1049731513499411.
Gillies, D. 2012. State education as high-yield investment: Human capital theory in European policy discourse. Journal of Pedagogy/Pedagogický Casopis 2(2): 224–245. doi:10.2478/v10159-011-0011-3.
Gillies, D. 2014. Human capital, education, and sustainability. Sisyphus-Journal of Education 2(3): 78–99.
Giota, J., O. Lundborg, and I. Emanuelsson. 2009. Special education in comprehensive schools: Extent, forms and effects. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 53(6): 557–578. doi:10.1080/00313830903302083.
Gorur, R. 2011. ANT on the PISA trail: Following the statistical pursuit of certainty. Educational Philosophy and Theory 43(sup1): 76–93. doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2009.00612.x.
Gorur, R., and M. Wu. 2015. Leaning too far? PISA, policy and Australia’s ‘top five’ ambitions. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 36(5): 647–664. doi:10.1080/01596306.2014.930020.
Grek, S. 2009. Governing by numbers: The PISA ‘effect’ in Europe. Journal of Education Policy 24(1): 23–37. doi:10.1080/02680930802412669.
Gumy, C., T. Huissoud, and F. Dubois-Arber. 2010. Prevalence of methylphenidate prescription among school-aged children in a Swiss population: Increase in the number of prescriptions in the Swiss Canton of Vaud, from 2002 to 2005, and changes in patient demographics. Journal of Attention Disorders 14(3): 267–272. doi:10.1177/1087054709356386.
Gustafsson, J.E., and E. Myrberg. 2002. Ekonomiska resursers betydelse för pedagogiska resultat—en kunskapsöversikt [The importance of economic resources for educational results—A review]. Stockholm: Skolverket.
Hacking, I. 1991. A tradition of natural kinds. Philosophical Studies 61(1): 109–126.
Hacking, I. 1996. The looping effects of human kinds. In Causal cognition, ed. Sperber, D., Premack, D., and Premack, A.J., 351–383. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198524021.001.0001/acprof-9780198524021-chapter-12.
Halldner, L., A. Tillander, C. Lundholm, M. Boman, N. Långström, H. Larsson, and P. Lichtenstein. 2014. Relative immaturity and ADHD: Findings from nationwide registers, parent- and self-reports. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 55(8): 897–904. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12229.
Haug, P. 1998. Pedagogiskt dilemma: specialundervisning. Stockholm: Statens skolverk: Liber distribution.
Health Council of the Netherlands. 2014. ADHD: medicatie en maatschappij. The Hague: Health Council of the Netherlands (Gezondheidsraad).
Hjörne, E. 2006. Pedagogy in the ADHD classroom: An exploratory study of the little group. In Critical new perspectives on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ed. G. Lloyd, D. Cohen, and J. Stead, 176–197. Abingdon: Routledge Falmer.
Hjörne, E. 2015. The narrative of special education in Sweden: History and trends in policy and practice. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. doi:10.1080/01596306.2015.1073017.
Hjörne, E., and A.-C. Evaldsson. 2015. Reconstituting the ADHD girl: Accomplishing exclusion and solidifying a biomedical identity in an ADHD class. International Journal of Inclusive Education 19(6): 626–644. doi:10.1080/13603116.2014.961685.
Houts, A.C. 2002. Discovery, invention, and the expansion of the modern diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. In Rethinking the DSM: A psychological perspective, ed. L.E. Beutler, and M.L. Malik, 17–65. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hyman, S.E. 2010. The diagnosis of mental disorders: The problem of reification. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 6(1): 155–179. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091532.
Kallinikos, J. 2002. Reopening the black box of technology artifacts and human agency. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Information Systems, 287–294. Barcelona, Spain: AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2002/26.
Kallinikos, J. 2005. The order of technology: Complexity and control in a connected world. Information and Organization 15(3): 185–202. doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2005.02.001.
Kallinikos, J. 2012. Knowing and living as data assembly, chap. 5. In Phenomenology, organizational politics, and IT design: The social study of information systems, ed. Viscusi, G., Campagnolo, G.M., and Curzi, Y., 68–78. Hershey: IGI Global. http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018/978-1-4666-0303-5.
Krabbe, E.E., E.D. Thoutenhoofd, M. Conradi, S.J. Pijl, and L. Batstra. 2014. Birth month as predictor of ADHD medication use in Dutch school classes. European Journal of Special Needs Education 29(4): 571–578. doi:10.1080/08856257.2014.943564.
Langager, S. 2014. Children and youth in behavioural and emotional difficulties, skyrocketing diagnosis and inclusion/exclusion processes in school tendencies in Denmark. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties 19(3): 284–295. doi:10.1080/13632752.2014.883785.
Latour, B. 2007. Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor–network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lawn, M. 2011. Governing through data in English education. Education Inquiry, 2(2): 277–288. http://www.education-inquiry.net/index.php/edui/article/viewFile/21980/28723.
Leslie, C., and C. Skidmore. 2007. SEN: The truth about inclusion. London: The Bow Group.
Lloyd, G., J. Stead, and D. Cohen (eds.). 2006. Critical new perspectives on ADHD. London and New York: Routledge.
Luhmann, N. 1995. Social systems. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Madsen, H.M., A. Hvenegaard, and E.K. Fredslund. 2011. Opgaveudvikling på psykiatriområdet. Copenhagen: Dansk Sundhedsinstitut (Danish Institute for Health Services Research).
Matte, B., L. Anselmi, G.A. Salum, C. Kieling, H. Gonçalves, A. Menezes, E.H. Grevet, and L.A. Rohde. 2015. ADHD in DSM-5: A field trial in a large, representative sample of 18- to 19-year-old adults. Psychological Medicine 45(02): 361–373. doi:10.1017/S0033291714001470.
Mjaavatn, P.E., P. Frostad, and S.J. Pijl. 2015. Measuring the causes for the growth in special needs education. A validation of a questionnaire with possible factors explaining the growing demand for special provisions in education. European Journal of Special Needs Education 30(4): 565–574. doi:10.1080/08856257.2015.1085141.
Mol, A. 2002. The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice. Durham: Duke University Press.
Nielsen, P. 2012. Studying information infrastructures, chap. 9. In Phenomenology, organizational politics, and IT design: The social study of information systems, ed. Viscusi, G., Campagnolo, G.M., Curzi, Y., 143–158. Hershey: IGI Global. http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018/978-1-4666-0303-5.
Nilholm, C. 2014. ADHD: An educational challenge. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties 19(3): 324–326. doi:10.1080/13632752.2014.883791.
Nussbaum, M.C. 2003. Cultivating humanity: A classical defense of reform in liberal education (7. print). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Paris, J., V. Bhat, and B. Thombs. 2015. Is adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder being overdiagnosed? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry/Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie 60(7): 324–328.
PCMA. 2010. OECD PISA results published. http://www.pmca.ie/2010/12/oecd-pisa-results-published/.
Persson, B. 1998. Den motsägelsefulla specialpedagogiken: Motiveringar, genomförande och konsek- venser [The contradiction of special education: Justification, realisation and consequences]. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg.
Pirrie, A., and E.D. Thoutenhoofd. 2013. Learning to learn in the European reference framework for lifelong learning. Oxford Review of Education 39(5): 609–626. doi:10.1080/03054985.2013.840280.
Pollock, N., and William, R. 2012. Strategic ethnography and the biography of artefacts, chap. 13. In Phenomenology, organizational politics, and IT design: The social study of information systems, ed. Viscusi, G., Campagnolo, G.M., Curzi, Y., 221–250. Hershey: IGI Global. http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018/978-1-4666-0303-5.
Porter, T.M. 1996. Trust in numbers: The pursuit of objectivity in science and public life (2. print., and 1. paperback printing). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Pottegård, A., B.K. Bjerregaard, D. Glintborg, L.S. Kortegaard, J. Hallas, and S.I. Moreno. 2013. The use of medication against attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Denmark: A drug use study from a patient perspective. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 69(3): 589–598. doi:10.1007/s00228-012-1344-0.
Rutkowski, D. 2015. The OECD and the local: PISA-based test for schools in the USA. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 36(5): 683–699. doi:10.1080/01596306.2014.943157.
Slater, M.H., and A. Borghini. 2011. Introduction: Lessons from the scientific butchery. In Carving nature at its joints: Natural kinds in metaphysics and science, ed. J.K. Campbell, M. O’Rourke, and M.H. Slater, 1–32. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Stolzer, J.M. 2007. The ADHD epidemic in America. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 9(2): 109–116. doi:10.1891/152315007782021204.
Tait, G. 2006. A brief philosophical examination of ADHD. In Critical new perspectives on ADHD, ed. G. Lloyd, J. Stead, and D. Cohen, 83–95. London and New York: Routledge.
Tideman, M. 2000. Normalisering och kategorisering [Normalization and categorization]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Tomlinson, S. 2012. The irresistible rise of the SEN industry. Oxford Review of Education 38(3): 267–286. doi:10.1080/03054985.2012.692055.
van den Ban, E., P. Souverein, H. Swaab, H. van Engeland, R. Heerdink, and T. Egberts. 2010. Trends in incidence and characteristics of children, adolescents, and adults initiating immediate- or extended-release methylphenidate or atomoxetine in The Netherlands during 2001–2006. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 20(1): 55–61. doi:10.1089/cap.2008.0153.
Van Dijck, José, and T. Poell. 2015. Higher education in a networked world: European responses to U.S MOOCs. International Journal of Communication 9: 2674–2692.
van Quine, W.O. 1969. Ontological relativity and other essays. New York: Columbia University Press.
Visser, S.N., M.L. Danielson, R.H. Bitsko, J.R. Holbrook, M.D. Kogan, R.M. Ghandour, R. Perou, and S.J. Blumberg. 2014. Trends in the parent-report of health care provider-diagnosed and medicated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: United States, 2003–2011. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 53(1): 34.e2–46.e2. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2013.09.001.
Voort, J.L.V., J.-P. He, N.D. Jameson, and K.R. Merikangas. 2014. Impact of the DSM-5 attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder age-of-onset criterion in the US adolescent population. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 53(7): 736–744.
Wakefield, J.C. 2015. DSM-5, psychiatric epidemiology and the false positives problem. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences 24(03): 188–196. doi:10.1017/S2045796015000116.
Weber, M. 1946. Science as a vocation. In From Max Weber: Essays in sociology, ed. H.H. Gerth, and C. Wright Mills. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Weber, M. 1992. The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (trans: Parsons, T., intro: Giddens, A.). London: Routledge.
Whimster, S., and Lash, S., eds. 2009. Max Weber, rationality and modernity (reprinted, transferred to digital printing). London: Routledge.
Winner, L. 1993. Upon opening the black box and finding it empty: Social constructivism and the philosophy of technology. Science, Technology and Human Values 18(3): 362–378.
Woolgar, S. 1991. Beyond the citation debate: Towards a sociology of measurement technologies and their use in science policy. Science and Public Policy 18(5): 319–326. doi:10.1093/spp/18.5.319.
Zachar, P. 2000. Psychiatric disorders are not natural kinds. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 7(3): 167–182.
Zuvekas, S.H., and Vitiello, B. 2012. Stimulant medication use in children: A 12-year perspective. American Journal of Psychiatry. 169(2): 160–166. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11030387.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Thoutenhoofd, E.D. New Techniques of Difference: On Data as School Pupils. Stud Philos Educ 36, 517–532 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-016-9528-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-016-9528-1