The Data-doppelganger and the Cyborg-self: Theorising the Datafication of Education

In this paper, I use the notion of the data-doppelganger (Williamson, 2014) as a theoretical lens through which to view the datafication of education. The data-doppelganger is the version of the self which exists in the significant quantities of data collected about both children and teachers. A psychoanalytic analysis of the literary genre of the doppelganger identifies the role of the double as a second self, which completes the ego, expresses the repressed desires of the id and regulates the subject as the superego (Dolar, 1991). Using this psychoanalytic understanding of the double, I explore the role of data in the policy document Bold Beginnings (Ofsted, 2018). I find that data holds a mirror up to the child, repositioning it as a normalised pupil; play can be understood as a dangerous, chaotic practice which must be suppressed and data functions as a regulatory device to objectify and control both teachers and children.