Data visualizations as aesthetic devices of valuation: Diverging views of the ‘good’ pupil performance

Abstract

This article examines how Danish national test data visualizations enact the ‘good’ pupil performance. Theoretically, the article advances the idea of data visualizations as ‘aesthetic devices of valuation’, foregrounding visualizations as socio-technical and evaluative processes that can shape teachers’ attention and vision. This allows examining how the transformation from numbers into visual shapes renders different aspects of pupil performance visible and valuable through aesthetic tactics of bringing data into relation. Empirically, the paper examines national test visualizations from two different governmental periods, showing how they through different aesthetics mobilize, respectively, national benchmarking and individualized progression, reflecting changing governmental logics. Data visualizations thus entail an infrastructural politics of valuation and are not merely a neutral technical background for political and pedagogical battles over what counts as the ‘good’ performance. This has implications for how teachers can relate to pupils through data in an era where a visual culture of dashboards and data visualizations is becoming pervasive in educational landscapes.