Numbers, nations, globalization and education policy

[Extract] Nelli Piattoeva and Daniel Trohler argue logically, strongly and justifiably for the ongoing significance of the nation and nationalism in respect of schooling and education policy. They posit that this remains the case, despite globalization. They also assert that the rise of performance data to manage and steer schooling systems at international, national and sub-national levels should be seen through the lens of the nation and nationalism. Indeed, they see the constitution of the nation and the place of nationalism as always in a state of becoming, always in a state of formation and reformation: the banal reproduction of nationalism, as they put it, drawing on Michael Billig (1995). They also argue that these multi-scalar performance data in education also contribute to these (re)formations of the nation.