QuantCrit: education, policy, ‘Big Data’ and principles for a critical race theory of statistics

Abstract Quantitative research enjoys heightened esteem among policy-makers, media, and the general public. Whereas qualitative research is frequently dismissed as subjective and impressionistic, statistics are often assumed to be objective and factual. We argue that these distinctions are wholly false; quantitative data is no less socially constructed than any other form of research material. The first part of the paper presents a conceptual critique of the field with empirical examples that expose and challenge hidden assumptions that frequently encode racist perspectives beneath the façade of supposed quantitative objectivity. The second part of the paper draws on the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to set out some principles to guide the future use and analysis of quantitative data. These ‘QuantCrit’ ideas concern (1) the centrality of racism as a complex and deeply rooted aspect of society that is not readily amenable to quantification; (2) numbers are not neutral and should be interrogated for their role in promoting deficit analyses that serve White racial interests; (3) categories are neither ‘natural’ nor given and so the units and forms of analysis must be critically evaluated; (4) voice and insight are vital: data cannot ‘speak for itself’ and critical analyses should be informed by the experiential knowledge of marginalized groups; (5) statistical analyses have no inherent value but can play a role in struggles for social justice.

[1]  D. Gillborn.  Education policy as an act of white supremacy: whiteness, critical race theory and education reform , 2005 .

[2]  Gloria J. Ladson-Billings,et al.  Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? , 2019, Critical Race Theory in Education.

[3]  William F. Tate,et al.  Critical Race Theory and Education: History, Theory, and Implications , 1997 .

[4]  Jamel K. Donnor.  Derrick Bell, Brown, and the Continuing Significance of the Interest-Convergence Principle , 2016 .

[5]  Michael W. Apple,et al.  Educating the Right Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality , 2001 .

[6]  Z. Leonardo.  After the Glow: Race ambivalence and other educational prognoses , 2011 .

[7]  Derrick A. Bell,et al.  Race, racism, and American law , 1980 .

[8]  L. Parker,et al.  'Race is race ain't': An exploration of the utility of critical race theory in qualitative research in education , 1998 .

[9]  Z. Leonardo,et al.  Through the Multicultural Glass: Althusser, Ideology and Race Relations in Post-Civil Rights America , 2005 .

[10]  J. Ozga,et al.  Globalisation, education policy and politics , 2006 .

[11]  R. Delgado.  The Rodrigo Chronicles: Conversations About America and Race , 1995 .

[12]  G. Parra,et al.  Mayer Schönberger, Viktor; Cukier, Kenneth. Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think. London: John Murray, 2013 , 2015 .

[13]  Marie Weisz,et al.  Quantitative Data Analysis In Education A Critical Introduction Using Spss , 2016 .

[14]  Nikolas Rose,et al.  Powers of Freedom: Contents , 1999 .

[15]  D. Gillborn,et al.  Rationing Education: Policy, Practice, Reform and Equity , 1999 .

[16]  W. Tate.  Chapter 4: Critical Race Theory and Education: History, Theory, and Implications , 1997 .

[17]  Alfredo J. Artiles.  Toward an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Educational Equity and Difference , 2011 .

[18]  Marvin Lynn,et al.  Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education , 2013 .

[19]  Gloria J. Ladson-Billings,et al.  Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education , 1995, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[20]  A. Dixson,et al.  Critical race theory in education : all God's children got a song , 2016 .

[21]  B. Lingard.  Policy as numbers: ac/counting for educational research , 2011 .

[22]  D. Gillborn.  Racism as Policy: A Critical Race Analysis of Education Reforms in the United States and England , 2014 .

[23]  David Hursh.  Exacerbating inequality: the failed promise of the No Child Left Behind Act , 2007 .

[24]  D. Gillborn,et al.  Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education , 2015 .

[25]  D. Gillborn.  The White Working Class, Racism and Respectability: Victims, Degenerates and Interest-Convergence , 2010 .

[26]  Earnestyne Lashonne Sullivan.  A critical policy analysis: The impact of zero tolerance on out -of -school suspensions and expulsions of students of color in the state of Texas by gender and school level , 2007 .

[27]  R. Slee,et al.  Globalizing education policy , 2010 .

[28]  Guy Neave,et al.  The Evaluative State Reconsidered. , 1998 .

[29]  A. Bradbury.  Equity, ethnicity and the hidden dangers of ‘contextual’ measures of school performance , 2011 .

[30]  Lois Quam,et al.  The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification , 1998 .

[31]  A..  BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE INTEREST-CONVERGENCE DILEMMA , 2002 .

[32]  Derrick A. Bell join.  Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma , 1980 .

[33]  A. Fearnley.  Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research , 2008 .

[34]  N. Rose.  Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought , 1999 .

[35]  D. Gillborn.  Racism and Education: Coincidence or Conspiracy? , 2008 .

[36]  Daniel G. Solorzano,et al.  Examining Transformational Resistance Through a Critical Race and Latcrit Theory Framework , 2001 .

[37]  S. Gorard,et al.  (Mis)Understanding underachievement: a response to Connolly , 2008 .

[38]  Remi Joseph-Salisbury,et al.  Black British intellectuals and education: multiculturalism's hidden history , 2015 .

[39]  Mari J. Matsuda.  Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, And The First Amendment , 1993 .

[40]  Eric Gossett,et al.  Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think , 2015 .

[41]  Paul Warmington.  ‘A tradition in ceaseless motion’: critical race theory and black British intellectual spaces , 2012 .

[42]  D. Gillborn.  The colour of numbers: surveys, statistics and deficit‐thinking about race and class , 2010 .

[43]  C. Johnman,et al.  Big data! Big deal? , 2015, Public health.

[44]  Derrick A. Bell,et al.  Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma. , 1980 .

[45]  Paul Warmington,et al.  Taking race out of scare quotes: race‐conscious social analysis in an ostensibly post‐racial world , 2009 .

[46]  F Lefford,et al.  A blot on the profession , 1988, British medical journal.

[47]  Tara J. Yosso,et al.  Critical Race Methodology: Counter-Storytelling as an Analytical Framework for Education Research , 2002 .

[48]  Linda Darling-Hammond,et al.  Race, inequality and educational accountability: the irony of ‘No Child Left Behind’ , 2007 .

[49]  S. Power,et al.  Education markets, the new politics of recognition and the increasing fatalism towards inequality , 2010, Nancy Fraser, Social Justice and Education.

[50]  M. Blair.  Why Pick on Me?: School Exclusion and Black Youth , 2001 .

[51]  D. Mccloskey,et al.  The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives , 2008 .

[52]  Beth A. Ferri,et al.  Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability , 2013 .

[53]  R. Delgado,et al.  Critical Race Theory: An Introduction , 2014 .

[54]  Valentina Migliarini.  DisCrit: disability studies and critical race theory in education , 2019 .

[55]  Alejandro Covarrubias,et al.  Critical Race Quantitative Intersectionality: An Anti-Racist Research Paradigm that Refuses to “Let the Numbers Speak for Themselves” , 2013 .

[56]  E. Greaves,et al.  Socio-economic, ethnic and gender differences in HE participation , 2015 .

[57]  Edward Taylor.  Critical race theory and interest convergence in the backlash against affirmative action: Washington State and Initiative 200. , 2000 .

[58]  B. Lingard,et al.  Education policy as numbers: data categories and two Australian cases of misrecognition , 2012 .

[59]  Margaret E. Montoya,et al.  Latina/os' and Latina/o Legal Studies: A Critical and Self-Critical Review of LatCrit Theory and Legal Models of Knowledge Production , 2008 .

[60]  Charles Anderson,et al.  The end of theory: The data deluge makes the scientific method obsolete , 2008 .

[61]  Michael Barber,et al.  Instruction to Deliver: Fighting to Transform Britain's Public Services , 2007 .