The Ethics and Bureaucratization of Data Management

In this chapter, we consider what a “critical” approach to data management means. We are researchers who work with large-scale longitudinal data in order to address policy issues around equity in higher education. We explore how a critical approach applies to various aspects of working with quantitative data, by first considering why a critical approach is important and how stereotypical ontological and epistemological orientations toward quantitative research might be at odds with such an approach. We then consider issues of measurement and how they are intrinsically political; what is not measured is arguably more important than what is. Next, we discuss the landscape of data gatekeepers and who limits researchers’ access to data, particularly in Canada. We will also address how much of these normative gatekeeper behaviors are strongly embedded in longstanding bureaucratic procedures and reactions in Canada. Finally, we move on to the increasingly overreaching nature of research ethics boards and their affect on how data are accessed and managed, particularly in education research. It is our hope that this information can be used by education researchers to inform a critical approach to data analysis and to foster greater conversation around the need for government-based longitudinal education data.