Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 70

The Educational Intelligent Economy

Big Data Artificial Intelligence Machine


Learning and the Internet of Things in
Education 1st Edition Tavis D. Jules
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-educational-intelligent-economy-big-data-artificial-
intelligence-machine-learning-and-the-internet-of-things-in-education-1st-edition-tavis
-d-jules/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things:


Applications in Smart Healthcare (Innovations in Big
Data and Machine Learning) 1st Edition Lalit Mohan
Goyal (Editor)
https://ebookmeta.com/product/artificial-intelligence-and-
internet-of-things-applications-in-smart-healthcare-innovations-
in-big-data-and-machine-learning-1st-edition-lalit-mohan-goyal-
editor/

Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Big Data, and Internet


of Things for Healthcare 1st Edition Govind Singh Patel

https://ebookmeta.com/product/machine-learning-deep-learning-big-
data-and-internet-of-things-for-healthcare-1st-edition-govind-
singh-patel/

The Global Educational Policy Environment in the Fourth


Industrial Revolution Gated Regulated and Governed 1st
Edition Tavis D. Jules

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-global-educational-policy-
environment-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-gated-regulated-
and-governed-1st-edition-tavis-d-jules/

Convergence of Deep Learning and Artificial


Intelligence in Internet of Things 1st Edition Ajay
Rana

https://ebookmeta.com/product/convergence-of-deep-learning-and-
artificial-intelligence-in-internet-of-things-1st-edition-ajay-
rana/
Machine learning and artificial intelligence with
industrial applications : from big data to small data
1st Edition Diego Carou

https://ebookmeta.com/product/machine-learning-and-artificial-
intelligence-with-industrial-applications-from-big-data-to-small-
data-1st-edition-diego-carou/

Reinventing Manufacturing and Business Processes


Through Artificial Intelligence (Innovations in Big
Data and Machine Learning) 1st Edition Geeta Rana

https://ebookmeta.com/product/reinventing-manufacturing-and-
business-processes-through-artificial-intelligence-innovations-
in-big-data-and-machine-learning-1st-edition-geeta-rana/

Artificial Intelligence for the Internet of Health


Things 1st Edition K. Shankar

https://ebookmeta.com/product/artificial-intelligence-for-the-
internet-of-health-things-1st-edition-k-shankar/

The Era of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning,


and Data Science in the Pharmaceutical Industry 1st
Edition Stephanie Kay Ashenden

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-era-of-artificial-intelligence-
machine-learning-and-data-science-in-the-pharmaceutical-
industry-1st-edition-stephanie-kay-ashenden/

Internet of Things Based Smart Healthcare Intelligent


and Secure Solutions Applying Machine Learning
Techniques Suparna Biswas

https://ebookmeta.com/product/internet-of-things-based-smart-
healthcare-intelligent-and-secure-solutions-applying-machine-
learning-techniques-suparna-biswas/
THE EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENT
ECONOMY
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON
EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

Series Editor: Alexander W. Wiseman

Recent Volumes:

Series Editor from Volume 11: Alexander W.


Wiseman
Volume 14: Post-socialism is Not Dead: (Re)Reading The Global in
Comparative Education
Volume 15: The Impact and Transformation of Education Policy in
China
Volume 16: Education Strategy in the Developing World: Revising
the World Bank’s Education Policy
Volume 17: Community Colleges Worldwide: Investigating the
Global Phenomenon
Volume 18: The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Education Worldwide
Volume 19: Teacher Reforms around the World: Implementations
and Outcomes
Volume 20: Annual Review of Comparative and International
Education 2013
Volume 21: The Development of Higher Education in Africa:
Prospects and Challenges
Volume 22: Out of the Shadows: The Global Intensification of
Supplementary Education
Volume 23: International Education Innovation and Public Sector
Entrepreneurship
Volume 24: Education for a Knowledge Society in Arabian Gulf
Countries
Volume 25: Annual Review of Comparative and International
Education 2014
Volume 26: Comparative Sciences: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Volume 27: Promoting and Sustaining a Quality Teacher Workforce
Worldwide
Volume 28: Annual Review of Comparative and International
Education 2015
Volume 29: Post-Education-for-All and Sustainable Development
Paradigm: Structural Changes with Diversifying Actors
and Norms
Volume 30: Annual Review of Comparative and International
Education 2016
Volume 31: The Impact of the OECD on Education Worldwide
Volume 32: Work-integrated Learning in the 21st Century: Global
Perspectives on the Future
Volume 33: The Century of Science: The Global Triumph of the
Research University
Volume 34: Annual Review of Comparative and International
Education 2017
Volume 35: Cross-nationally Comparative, Evidence-based
Educational Policymaking and Reform 2018
Volume 36: Comparative and International Education: Survey of an
Infinite Field 2019
Volume 37: Annual Review of Comparative and International
Education 2018
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION
AND SOCIETY VOLUME 38

THE EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENT ECONOMY: BIG
DATA, ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE, MACHINE
LEARNING AND THE
INTERNET OF THINGS IN
EDUCATION
EDITED BY

TAVIS D. JULES
Loyola University Chicago, USA

and

FLORIN D. SALAJAN
North Dakota State University, USA
United Kingdom – North America – Japan
India – Malaysia – China
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2020

Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service


Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any
form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without
either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying
issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright
Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst
Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald
makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application
and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data


A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78754-853-4 (Print)


ISBN: 978-1-78754-852-7 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-78754-854-1 (Epub)

ISSN: 1479-3679 (Series)


An extremely important addition to the Comparative and
International Education literature that stands out for its
comprehensiveness and erudition. The topics covered here are not
only thematically diverse, but extend the boundaries of scholarly
inquiry by raising fundamental questions with which all members of
the Comparative and International Education scholarly community
must seriously engage. Irving Epstein, Ben and Susan Rhodes
Endowed Professor in Peace and Justice, Chair of Educational
Studies, Director of the Center for Human Rights, Illinois Wesleyan
University

This book sparkles with insights about the emerging Educational


Intelligent Economy and the challenges that new, fast-paced,
commodified and borderless technologies are posing to policymaking
and governance. This is the new “go-to” reference for my own
explorations of big data, machine learning, AI and predictive
intelligence that I have been waiting for! Radhika Gorur, Associate
Professor, Deakin University. Australia

The book offers readers “concerned descriptions” of the current


developments and provides valuable and timely contributions for
exploring dilemmas, risks and potentialities of the dynamics of the
Educational Intelligent Economy. A very insightful knowledge
repertoire is finally furnished to interfering with and possibly
challenging the existing power asymmetries in education research
agendas and global policy. Paolo Landri, Deputy Director and Senior
Researcher, Institute of Research on Population and Social Policies,
National Research Council in Italy
CONTENTS

About the Contributors


Foreword
by Gita Steiner-Khamsi

Introduction: The Educational Intelligent


Economy, Educational Intelligence, and Big
Data
Florin D. Salajan and Tavis D. Jules

PART I
(RE)CONCEPTUALIZING DATA IN
COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL
EDUCATION

Chapter 1 Big “G” and Small “g”: The Variable


Geometries of Educational Governance in an
era of Big Data
Tavis D. Jules

Chapter 2 The Educational Intelligent


Economy and Big Data in Comparative and
International Education Research: A
Decolonial Vision
Bjorn H. Nordtveit and Fadia Nordtveit

PART II
REVISITING METHODOLOGIES
Chapter 3 The Perceptron: A Partial History of
Models and Minds in Data-driven Educational
Systems
Ryan Ziols

Chapter 4 Best Practices from Best Methods?


Big Data and the Limitations of Impact
Evaluation in the Global Governance of
Education
D. Brent Edwards Jr

Chapter 5 What if Compulsory Schooling was


a 21st Century Invention?
Jason McGrath and John Fischetti

PART III
WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION,
TRANSFORMATION, AND INDUSTRY 4.0
Chapter 6 The Educational Intelligent
Economy – Lifelong Learning – A Vision for the
Future
Vasudha Chaudhari, Victoria Murphy and Allison
Littlejohn

Chapter 7 Humanistic, Innovative


Solutionism: What Role Do Data Analytics Play
in Developing a More Responsive and More
Intelligent Adult and Workforce Education
Policy?
Elizabeth A. Roumell and Kevin Roessger

Chapter 8 Data Mining and Predictive


Analytics in Digital Education: Lessons We Can
Learn from Big Data that are often Discarded
Aleksei Malakhov

Chapter 9 The Intricate Web of Educational


Governance: The Cyborg Dialectic and
Commodification of Knowledge
Petrina M. Davidson, Elizabeth Bruce and Lisa
Damaschke-Deitrick

Chapter 10 Engineering the


Mechanism/Repairing the Robot: Artificial
Intelligence at the Intersection of Education
and Industry
Luis F. Alvarez León
PART IV
CASE STUDIES

Chapter 11 Policy Development for an


Educational Intelligent Economy in the
European Union: An Illusory Prospect?
Florin D. Salajan

Chapter 12 Haunted Data: The Colonial


Residues of Transnational School Reforms in
Kenya
Christopher Kirchgasler

Chapter 13 Brave New World(s): Governing


Clouds, Smart Schools, and the Rise of AIEd
Euan Auld and Yun You

Chapter 14 Learning Analytics for Student


Success at University: Trends and Dilemmas
Sean Mackney and Robin Shields

Index
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Luis F. Alvarez León is Assistant Professor of Geography at


Dartmouth College. He is a Political-Economic Geographer with
research interests in the spatial, political, regulatory, and economic
dimensions of the digital information economy. In particular, he is
interested in examining the evolution and implications of geospatial
data, media, and technologies – ranging from Google Street View to
self-driving car navigation, content geotargeting, and remotely
sensed satellite data. His work contributes to a geographical
understanding of the spatial configuration of information economies
and their associated social transformations. He received his PhD in
Geography from UCLA in 2016.

Euan Auld is Assistant Professor at The Education University of


Hong Kong. He holds a PhD in International and Comparative
Education and Policy Studies from the UCL Institute of Education. His
research to date has focused primarily on large-scale international
assessments and their influence on education research and policy,
drawing on philosophical perspectives and narrative theory.

Elizabeth Bruce, Independent Researcher and Consultant, USA,


has a Bachelor of Science degree in Textile Chemistry from Clemson
University, South Carolina, USA, and a Master of Education degree in
Globalization and Educational Change from Lehigh University,
Pennsylvania, USA. Her personal research publications have centered
on Africa, including bioethics training in higher education and the
intersection of HIV/AIDS policies and education. She has been part
of collaborative work with colleagues at Lehigh examining the
scientization of mass education worldwide. Her consulting work
includes research support and collaboration on a project basis.
Vasudha Chaudhari is a PhD candidate at the Institute of
Educational Technology (IET), The Open University, UK. Her research
is funded by the Leverhulme doctoral scholarship program, under the
Open World Learning project (https://iet.open.ac.uk/projects/owl).
Her research interests include technology-enhanced professional
learning and design-based research methodology. Her dissertation
research focuses on the development and implementation of
technological scaffolding on proactive work behavior of finance
professionals during times of uncertainty. As part of her PhD,
Vasudha is using design-based research methods for developing an
LiU (Learning in Uncertainty) app, that supports professionals’
proactive work behavior through personalized self-regulated learning
strategies to be used during periods of uncertainty. She has
conducted impact events and workshops at the Chartered Institute
of Securities and Investments, London to help finance professionals
recognize the need for self-regulating their CPD activities during
uncertain times. Apart from her PhD activities, Vasudha has been an
organizing committee member of Computers and Learning Research
Group, which is one of the UK’s leading and longest running research
groups in the use of technologies in education. Apart from her
academic endeavors, she has 11 plus years of industry experience in
the field of data analytics and information technology.

Lisa Damaschke-Deitrick is Professor of Comparative and


International Education at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA. She
holds a Doctorate in Social Sciences from the University of Tübingen,
Germany, a Master’s in International Relations from the Free
University Amsterdam, and a Bachelor from the University of
Bielefeld, Germany. In her research, she focuses on how education is
used as a solution or panacea for societal issues. She examines
educational policies for poverty prevention with the focus on early-
school leavers. She conducts research on educational policies and
practices designed to facilitate refugee youth’s participation in their
new host countries. She is also part of a research group examining
the scientization of mass education worldwide.
Petrina M. Davidson completed her PhD in Comparative and
International Education at Lehigh University, USA. She has an MS in
Teaching, Learning, and Leadership with an Emphasis on Curriculum
and Instruction from Oklahoma State University, and a BA in English
and Education from the University of Tulsa. Before moving to
Pennsylvania, she worked for one of the largest school districts in
Oklahoma, where she taught high school English for four years and
served as the district’s secondary English curriculum coordinator for
one year. She currently works with the Iacocca Institute in Lehigh
University’s Office of International Affairs on the internationalization
of higher education initiatives and evaluations. Her research interests
include the institutionalization of education, curriculum in post-
conflict societies, education for refugees and marginalized
populations, measures of teacher quality, and the internationalization
of higher education.

D. Brent Edwards Jr. is Associate Professor of Theory and


Methodology in the Study of Education at the University of Hawaii,
Manoa. Previously, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of
Amsterdam, a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Central America,
and a Post-doctoral Researcher at The University of Tokyo. His work
focuses on (a) the global governance of education and (b) education
policy, politics, and political economy, with a focus on low-income
countries. He has two recent books: Global Education Policy, Impact
Evaluations, and Alternatives: The Political Economy of Knowledge
Production and The Trajectory of Global Education Policy:
Community-based Management in El Salvador and the Global Reform
Agenda (Palgrave Macmillan 2018 (for both)).

John Fischetti is Professor, Head of School and Dean of Education


at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His 35-year career includes
research in school reform, educational leadership, and the issues
facing teaching and teacher education in today’s transformative,
interconnected world. John holds a Doctorate in Professional
Development, School Reform, and Educational Leadership, Masters
work in Secondary Education, and a BA in Economics and American
Government. Previously he served as Dean and Professor of
Educational Leadership at the College of Education at Southeastern
Louisiana University. John is a strong advocate for educational
equity. A reframed curriculum with an equity agenda can unleash
human capacity for the collaborative, global innovation age that
demands not only advanced literacy, numeracy, and technology skills
but care, compassion inspiration, and love. To enable every child to
be successful, John proposes that we need a different kind of
teacher for a different type of school.

Tavis D. Jules is Associate Professor of Cultural and Educational


Policy Studies at Loyola University Chicago, specifically focusing on
Comparative and International Education and International Higher
Education. His vast professional and academic experiences have led
to research and publications across the Caribbean and North Africa.
He is President of the Caribbean Studies Association, Book Review
Editor for the Caribbean Journal of International Relations and an
International Institute of Islamic Thought Fellow. His most recent
books include: Educational Transitions in Post-Revolutionary Spaces:
Islam, Security and Social Movements in Tunisia (with Teresa Barton,
Bloomsbury 2018); Re-Reading Education Policy and Practice in
Small States: Issues of Size and Scale in the Emerging Intelligent
Society and Economy (with Patrick Ressler, Peter Lang 2017); and
The New Global Educational Policy Environment in the Fourth
Industrial Revolution: Gated, Regulated and Governed (Emerald
2016).

Christopher Kirchgasler is Assistant Professor of Curriculum and


Global Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work
examines the historical, ethnographic, and comparative qualities of
schooling, particularly as they relate to notions of inclusion, equity,
and justice. His research directs attention to how contemporary
transnational school reforms are “haunted” by a coloniality of
knowledge that defines who and what are seen and acted on as the
“problems” of individual and social development. He has co-edited A
Political Sociology of Educational Knowledge: Studies of Exclusion
and Difference (Routledge 2017) and his work has been published in
the American Educational Research Journal.

Allison Littlejohn is Dean of Learning and Teaching in the College


of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK and Professor of
Education in the School of Education. She is a learning scientist,
specializing in professional and digital learning. Her expertise is in
applying educational theory and evidence in developing and
evaluating complex interventions for professional learning, which
capitalize on the use of digital technologies. Her work has made
contributions to the understanding of how people learn for work in
diverse contexts and cultures across the Energy, Finance, Health,
Education, and International Development sectors. Professor
Littlejohn has been awarded over 40 research grants funded by
organizations including the Economic and Social Research Council,
The European Commission, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
the Energy Institute, British Petroleum, the Higher Education
Academy, Jisc, the Higher Education Funding Council for England,
and the Scottish Funding Council. Her research focuses on the role
of professional learning in resolving global challenges and has been
published as six books and over 200 articles.

Sean Mackney is an educational leader and entrepreneur,


passionate about exploring opportunities for innovation and student
empowerment. He is currently Principal and CEO of Petroc College,
UK. Prior to joining Petroc, he held the positions of PVC (Research,
Enterprise and External Relations) and PVC (Education) at Bucks
New University, Director of Student Education and Engagement at
University of Exeter, Deputy CEO at the Higher Education Academy
and Head of Learning and Teaching Policy at the HE Funding Council
for England. Currently completing his doctorate with the University
of Bath, his research focuses on power and discourse in the
policymaking process.

Aleksei Malakhov is a Software Analyst at TVO – The Ontario


Educational Communications Authority in Toronto ON. He earned his
Master’s degree in International Educational Development at
Teachers College Columbia University in New York NY. Aleksei’s main
professional interest is educational technology and its impact on
international education. He has recently supported the launch of
Virtual Learning Environment for Ontario’s largest high school –
TVO’s Independent Learning Centre (ILC), a project mandated by
Ontario’s Ministry of Education. As a member of a modern digital
data-driven educational organization working on the Distribution
Enhancements team, Aleksei has an opportunity to explore the new
possibilities that Big Data and Artificial Intelligence have to offer the
educational sector and the society at large.

Jason McGrath is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Education,


University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW Australia. Jason is a
doctoral student at the University of Newcastle investigating What if
compulsory education was a twenty-first century invention? School
scenarios of the future through a counterfactual analysis. A related
recent article was What if compulsory schooling was a 21st-century
invention? Weak signals from a systematic review of the literature.
Jason holds an MEd (Research) from the University of Newcastle
examining the topic “Collaborative Teaching Partnerships”: Team
Teaching as a way of Supporting New Professionals into Teaching
and a BA Dip Ed in English and History from Macquarie University.
He has over 25 years of experience as an Educator in schools and is
currently Principal of a large K-12 public school.

Victoria Murphy is currently a PhD candidate in the Institute of


Educational Technology in the Open University, UK. Her research is
sponsored by the Energy Institute and focuses on exploring how
energy companies learn following accidents and near-misses to
prevent future incidents. Victoria holds a special interest in industrial
collaboration, as rigorous academic research techniques can bring
insights to problems faced by practitioners. Before her PhD, Victoria
worked in various technology companies and saw the potential of
Big Data to inform decisions. She believes that Big Data holds the
potential to develop more nuanced understandings of what it means
to learn and provide evidence of that learning, especially for adults
in their life-long developmental journey. However, she is also
interested in ensuring that populations are educated on the limits of
Big Data-based analytics.

Bjorn Nordtveit is Visiting Faculty at Zhejiang Normal University,


and Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
since 2011, after serving for five years as Research Assistant
Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong.
Before joining academia, he worked for 12 years (1994–2005) with
UNESCO in the Lao PRD and with the World Bank (mostly in West
African countries) on non-formal youth and adult education. His
research focuses on three areas: (i) aid effectiveness in education
and development, including public–private partnerships and
integrated service provision; (ii) child protection in contexts of
adversity; and (iii) critical and alternative epistemologies, including
critical autoethnography, decolonial methods, and critical discourse
analysis. His most recent book is Schools as Protection? Reinventing
Education in Contexts of Adversity (Springer 2016). Bjorn Nordtveit
is the Editor of the Comparative Education Review (2013–2023).

Fadia Nordtveit’s (previously Fadia Hasan) research on


international communication, global youth activism, new media
technologies, and social change led her to found The BGreen
Project, an international nonprofit that connects and mobilizes global
youth to collaborate in building new discourses on environmental
action and sustainable social change. Her academic-community
engaged research connects the global north and south and has led
to the book titled Participatory Action Research and the
Environment: The BGreen Project in the U.S. and Bangladesh
(Routledge 2017). Fadia’s goals as a Researcher and Educator are
aligned with a holistic approach that aims to connect networked
people and communities in an interdisciplinary, unique and glocal
academic universe to produce bigger, richer, and more inclusive
outcomes.
Kevin Roessger received his BS in Psychology, MS in Administrative
Leadership, and PhD in Adult and Continuing Education from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is Associate Professor of Adult
and Lifelong Learning at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville,
USA. Dr Roessger currently serves as Co-editor of adult education’s
flagship research journal Adult Education Quarterly, as well as a
reviewer for the journals Adult Learning and Journal of Continuing
Higher Education. He has published numerous articles and book
chapters in the field’s most respected outlets and is currently
overseeing a grant from the Department of Corrections that
examines the effect of correctional education programs on recidivism
and post-release employment. Dr Roessger’s research interests
include reflective learning strategies and developing reflective skills
in adult learners.

Elizabeth Anne Roumell received her BA in German Literature and


International Studies, Master’s in International Studies, and PhD in
Adult and Postsecondary Education from the University of Wyoming.
She is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational
Administration and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M
University, College Station, USA and teaches graduate courses
related to teaching and training adults, distance learning, and
international and comparative education. Dr Roumell currently serves
as Co-editor of adult education’s flagship research journal Adult
Education Quarterly and reviews for several journals in adult,
distance, and higher education. Dr. Roumell’s areas of research
emphasis include adult and workforce education policy, adult
learning in distance environments, and identity development in
intercultural contexts. She was the recipient of the Northern Rocky
Mountain Educational Research Association’s 2017 Early Career
Award, and the American Association for Adult and Continuing
Education’s 2013 Early Career Award.

Florin D. Salajan is Associate Professor in the School of Education


at North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA. He teaches
undergraduate and graduate courses in teacher education,
comparative education and instructional methods. His areas of
research interests include comparative and international education,
European higher education policies, European education policy
analysis, teacher education in comparative perspective, comparative
e-learning, and information and communication technology in
teaching and learning. His work has been published in the
Comparative Education Review, Compare, European Journal of
Education, European Educational Research Journal, European
Journal of Higher Education and Educational Policy.

Robin Shields’s research analyzes the globalization of higher


education, using social network analysis and related research
methods to understand shifting relationships between institutions,
individuals, and nation-states. He has applied these methods to
several domains, including international student flows in higher
education, social media networks, and research collaboration. Robin
has acted as Principal Investigator for research funded by the Higher
Education Academy and Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
He is also Co-Investigator on an ESRC-funded project studying cross-
cultural perspectives on Global Citizenship in Higher Education. Robin
teaches on the DBA in Higher Education Management, the Education
Doctorate, and several MA and undergraduate programs.

Yun You completed her PhD at the Institute of Education,


University College London and is working as a “Peak Discipline
Project” post-doctoral research fellow at the East China Normal
University, currently focusing on destructing the Western dominant
construction, representation and referencing of East Asian education,
and moving further, elaborating Chinese educational ideas and
practices from sui generis onto-epistemological lenses.

Ryan Ziols is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood and Elementary


Education at Georgia State University. Broadly, his research focuses
on the cultural politics of national and transnational STEM/STEAM
education. His current work historicizes how mental and socio-
emotional health have become moving targets of STEM/STEAM
reform and how data analytics, machine learning, and artificial
intelligence affect possibilities for inclusion, equity, and justice in
policy, research, and practice.
FOREWORD
Gita Steiner-Khamsi

This book breaks new grounds on several fronts.


Semantically, the authors of this book flesh out a vocabulary that,
until recently, was only mastered by a small group of technology
experts. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Intelligent Economy, Big
Data, Information Technology (IT), Operational Technology (OT),
and the Internet of Things (IoT) connecting IT and OT, are but a few
of the terms associated with data mining, machine learning, and
artificial intelligence. A clear indication of the professionalization of
this new area of research is the boundary work that the experts
currently undertake vis-á-vis non-experts as well as within
themselves. As a result of the expertization process, new journals
have been launched, associations established, and books produced.
Unsurprisingly, the terms associated with this rapidly expanding field
of research are currently undergoing a remarkable semantic
differentiation process. The term “data” has become ubiquitous to
the extent that experts have started to break it down into 13 forms
or more: big data, machine data, dark data, real-time data, etc.
(Jules, Chapter 1 in this volume).
Analytically, the authors have followed Gillespie’s (2014) advice:
“sociological analysis must not conceive of algorithms as abstract,
technical achievements, but unpack the warm human and
institutional choices that lie behind these cold mechanisms” (as cited
in Williamson, 2016, p. 8). Hyped as innovations and prerequisites
for the “intelligent economy,” humans and institutions in the
education sector increasingly use these technologies in governance,
teaching and learning, and testing. Drawing on the rhetoric of
knowledge-based economies, governments have partnered with
businesses to take the digital revolution to scale, or as Jules (2019)
has astutely phrased it:
The transition from governments to markets and the evolution of market-based
economies to knowledge-based economies imply that the new sources of wealth are
intelligence in the form of information housed in clouds, harnessed through data
procedures, broken down into uniquely tailored bites, and off to the highest bidder.
(Chapter 1 in this volume)

Clearly, the fast advance of digitalization and datafication in


education has generated new transnational alliances to “tame” the
digital transformation process (Salajan, Chapter 11) or to actually
propel it at global scale (UN Secretary General, 2019), respectively.
Finally, several authors of the book reflect on the, mostly
negative, transformative power of digitalization and datafication on
learning, governance, as well as educational policy and planning.
From a sociological systems-theory perspective, any fundamental
change constitutes an irritation which requires systems to learn,
adjust or, to use a term that resonates with this community of
experts, to recalibrate. Without any doubt, the digital revolution
qualifies as a fundamental change. Therefore, the questions that
arise are: What has the digitization revolution done to education?
Who has benefited, who has lost as a result of system learning,
adjustment, or recalibration?
Two fundamental principles of financial transaction are important
to bear in mind. First, if the consumers do not need to pay for a
product, they themselves become the product. The “prosumer”
phenomenon in data mining (Ritzer & Jurgenson, 2010), that is, the
blurred line between consumer and producer, has been scrutinized in
several chapters of the book. Second, there is a particular logic of
the economic system that is reflected, and exacerbated, in the digital
revolution that deserves to be unpacked. Even though digitalization
and datafication in education may have salutatory effects in some
areas of education, it is the underlying for-profit habitus that has
detrimental effects and is in need of theorizing.
In many countries, it is the businesses and international
organizations that are the main actors steering the digital revolution
in the education sector. A closer examination of their collaboration
reveals the trend toward standardization, testing, and
internationalization (Steiner-Khamsi, 2016; Steiner-Khamsi & Draxler,
2018). A few comments on these trends may be in order here.
Essentially, businesses rely on an economy of scale to sell their
products and services. Standardizing learning outcomes in the form
of OECD PISA’s twenty-first century skills, testing them at the end of
lower secondary and eventually at the end of primary school, and
administering the test to as many countries or educational systems
as possible, is good business. Big Data – defined by its volume,
velocity, and variety – helps to continually test and refine the
product in order to sell tailor-made variations or adaptations thereof
to a large number of customers.
Furthermore, directing attention to the intersection of
public/national and private/global is likely to yield new insights and
open up new avenues of research: by default, public means local or
national, and private may operate at all levels, including at the
international level. A project of the modern nation-state, compulsory
education is national in terms of accreditation, teaching content, and
language of instruction. In contrast, private providers are able to
orient themselves and operate both at a local, national and an
international scale. For example, the ubiquitous talk of global
markets and the attractiveness of international student mobility has
helped boost the attractiveness of international private schools and
transnational accreditation in education. If the trend continues,
“international” is likely to become increasingly positively associated
with cosmopolitanism and ‘national’ with backwardness and
parochialism. In an era of globalization, the national orientation has
become in and of itself a burden to governments. In other words,
public (national) education is not doing well. The digitalization of
education is deepening the crisis of public education, because
national governments need to rely on the expertise, products,
services of the private sector to implement the digital revolution.
They hire companies that, in the name of innovation, constantly
generate new datafication and digitalization needs, reach out to new
clienteles, and create an ever-expanding market. By default, the
private sector thinks global, because thinking big enables them to
transfer, and sell, one and the same product across the globe.
Arguably, it would be too narrow to think of the private sector
merely as a provider of products and services. The private sector has
become a major policy actor and is influential in setting reform
agendas and formulating policies. As Lubienski (2019) points out, we
are dealing nowadays with a “market place of ideas” and an
“overproduction of evidence” (Lubienski, 2019, p. 70). He succinctly
states:
Into the chasm between research production and policymaking, we are seeing the
entrance of new actors – networks of intermediaries – that seek to collect, interpret,
package, and promote evidence for policymakers to use in forming their decisions.
(Lubienski, 2019, p. 70)

The private sector has not only made itself indispensable for
amassing data across national boundaries but also for interpreting it.
It does so for its greater project of an “intelligent education,” that is,
an education that is informed by what works and what does not
work. Needless to state, from the perspective of policy borrowing
research, it is cause for alarm that innovations are uncritically
transferred from one context to another thereby disempowering local
actors and local solutions.
In other words, datafication and digitalization per se are not the
problem. On the contrary, there are many positive uses that come to
mind. For example, one may use data for advocacy purposes
(registering the number of internally displaced out-of-school children
and youth) or for digitalizing knowledge products and making them
openly available for free. The issue is that the Fourth Industrial
Revolution is at the mercy of for-profit companies who control the
knowledge, means, and global networks to scale up digitalization
and datafication to keep themselves in business.
Gita Steiner-Khamsi
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies,
Geneva, Switzerland
REFERENCES
Gillespie, T. (2014, 25 June). Algorithm. Culture Digitally. Retreived from
http://culturedigitally.org/2014/06/algorithm-draft-digitalkeyword/
Jules, T. (2019). Big “G” and Small “g”: The variable geometrics of educational governance
in an era of Big Data. In T. D. Jules & F. D. Salajan (Eds.), The educational intelligent
economy: Big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet of things in
education (pp. 1–12). Bingley: Emerald Publishers.
Lubienski, C. (2019). Advocacy networks and market models for education. In M. Parreira
do Amaral, G. Steiner-Khamsi, & C. Thompson (Eds.), Researching the global
education industry (pp. 69–86). New York, NY: Palgrave.
Ritzer, G., & Jurgenson, N. (2010). Production, consumption, prosumption: The nature of
capitalism in the age of the digital “Prosumer”. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10, 13–
36. doi:10.1177/1469540509354673
Salajan, F. D. (2019). Policy development for an educational intelligent economy in the
European Union: An illusory prospect? In T. D. Jules & F. D. Salajan (Eds.), The
educational intelligent economy: Big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and
the internet of things in education (pp. 199–214). Bingley: Emerald Publishers.
Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2016). Standards are good (for) business: Standardised comparison
and the private sector in education. Globalisation, Societies, and Education, 14(2), pp.
161–182. doi:10.1080/14767724.2015.1014883
Steiner-Khamsi, G., & Draxler, A. (2018). Introduction. In G. Steiner-Khamsi & A. Draxler
(Eds.), The state, business, and education: Public-private partnerships revisited (pp. 1–
15). Cheltenham: E. Elgar.
UN Secretary General. (2019). The age of digital interdependence. Report of the UN
Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, UN Secretary-General,
Geneva.
Williamson, B. (2016). Digital education governance: An introduction. European Educational
Research Journal, 15(1), pp. 3–13. doi:10.1177%2F1474904115616630
INTRODUCTION: THE EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENT ECONOMY, EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE, AND BIG DATA
Florin D. Salajan and Tavis D. Jules

The central tenet of this volume is that the world is witnessing the
steady and gradual transition from a knowledge economy or society
to an educational intelligent economy premised on the exponential
production of digital data to measure, analyze and predict
educational performance in comparative perspective. Furthermore,
the digitization and datafication of educational output in the “data-
driven, algorithm-mediated economy of the twenty-first century”
(Economist, 2019, p. 1) have intensified the processing and analysis
of data leading to the emergence of a form of digital education
governance through massive flows of “Big Data” (Williamson, 2017).
The shift in the massification of data storage and flows and the
algorithms generating foresight capabilities unimagined barely a
decade ago is of such magnitude that some have argued it
represents a quantum leap in offering solutions for social and
economic problems (Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). In
describing the core features of Big Data as residing primarily in its
volume, velocity, and veracity but also in its exhaustiveness,
flexibility, and scalability, Kitchin (2014) considers Big Data a
disruptive innovation powerful enough that “a data revolution is
underway that has far-reaching consequences to how knowledge is
produced, business conducted, and governance enacted” (p. 2).
Given its perceived value and its potential to engender both progress
and pose unforeseen challenges, this type of data may be construed
as educational intelligence to be exchanged, exploited, and
leveraged for a multitude of purposes in the global educational
markets and worlds of policymaking. We posit that at the heart of
the intelligent economy is educational intelligence, which
encompasses both individual and system-level processes. This has
the real potential of unleashing the creative capacity of educational
systems to find innovative solutions in harnessing the learning
required to manage and steer data integration at the intersection of
Big Data, cloud computing, social media, mobile and automation
technologies, and scientific discoveries that continuously reshape the
way we live, work and learn.
The term educational intelligence appears to have a long history
and may be traced to the rise of data in education (Lawn, 2013). It
has been used under varying semantic connotations and with
diverging meanings over time. Thus, during the mid- to late-
nineteenth century, the Journal of Education for Upper Canada
(Department of Public Instruction for Upper Canada, 1848–1866)
construed educational intelligence as information collected from the
academic world as updates and news about individual scholarship
and institutional developments. Though no explicit definition was
provided, a section of the journal titled “Educational Intelligence”
was devoted to recording and disseminating such information,
suggesting an understanding of the term as a process of information
gathering with the purpose of building a shareable list of updates for
public consumption, not connoting an intent to gain advantage in an
adversarial, conflictual or competitive context.
More significantly for the field of comparative and international
education, Sir Michael Sadler’s take on educational intelligence at the
beginning of the twentieth century is illuminating for its foresight
and significance in steering educational research and reporting on
comparative analyses of educational systems. Having served for
eight years and accumulating a wealth of experience as Director of
the UK Office of Special Inquiries and Reports, Sadler suggested that
a change in the Department’s title was more fitting its then current
scope and purpose. Thus, in recounting his reflection on this matter,
Sadler opined:
The present title is too obscure, while that suggested in lieu of it would more clearly
denote the work of the branch, as the Intelligence Department of the Board of
Education. It would also more closely conform to the nomenclature adopted for the
Intelligence Divisions of the Admiralty, War Office and the Board of Trade. (as cited
in Sislian, 2004, p. 8)

Sadler’s predilection for including educational intelligence in the


renaming of his former office and elevating its importance to that of
the domains of defense or commerce is telling in his intent to equate
educational intelligence with military or economic intelligence. It
implies that he regarded educational intelligence as vital data assets
with strategic value to be safeguarded and leveraged in extracting
benefits for the investigation and steering of educational systems. It
is hardly coincidental that Sadler would advocate for an
acknowledgment of educational data as a form of intelligence in the
sense of sensitive information to be gathered and employed in
comparative studies of educational systems. During the nineteenth,
century comparison became increasingly more reliant on statistical
data, and world expositions acted as competitions of sorts for
educational systems (Lawn, 2013). According to Crossley (2014), at
that time, and still today, “the primary motivator for such
comparisons came from the economic competition between nation-
states” (p. 16). Sadler was likely keenly aware that such educational
intelligence was an essential tool not only in developing a thorough
understanding of one’s national education system but also in
measuring its performance in contradistinction with those of other
countries. In this sense, it may be presumed that apart from the
rather benign aims to drive the governance, improvements, and
reforms in the UK’s educational system, Sadler treated educational
intelligence as an avenue to propel national education into an
influential political and economic position internationally.
To a certain degree, Sadler’s implicit analogy of educational
intelligence to information gathering for defense or economic aims is
a precursor to Revel’s (2010) use of economic intelligence as
meeting three distinct needs of actors in a globalized world: the
mastery of strategic information, economic security, and influence.
All three features can be transposed to the structures and
institutions of national educational systems, as they seek to compete
in an increasingly competitive educational market characterized by
the rapid production, flows, and consumption of ever larger
quantities of data. In Revel’s (2010) conception, “economic
intelligence,” combines several concepts and practices including
“competitive intelligence, economic security, risk management,
lobbying, public diplomacy, soft power (governments), business
diplomacy (companies)” (n.d) to regulate the flow of information
among public and private actors. In essence, economic intelligence is
a governance mechanism that is “recognized as a professional tool
for strategy and management for states and companies in the
globalized world” (p. 2). Others have extended the discussion on
economic intelligence to account for the “identification of relevant
sources of information, the analysis of the collected information and
its manipulation to provide what the user needs for decision making”
(European Commission, 2002, p. 9).
Discourses on economic imperatives emanating from the
competition in the global markets have long penetrated educational
policy parlance, as national governments in knowledge-driven
economies have placed an ever-larger emphasis on the role of
education in the production of knowledge in the era of seemingly
limitless global flows of information. In Steiner-Khamsi’s (2004)
words, “there is no doubt that there are economic gains associated
with educational trade. The education export business is a lucrative
one” (p. 205). Thus, large-scale international comparative studies,
such as the OECD’s Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) and the Programme for the International
Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) or the IEA’s Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) have become
a treasure trove of critical data in the governance of education for a
whole host of institutional and individual actors intersecting the
worlds of academia, policymaking, business, industry, and civil
society (Williamson, 2017). Along with vying for recognition in
academic league tables, these various entities have vested interests
in demanding increasingly more rigorous standards of quality and
accountability from educational systems to extract socio-economic
benefits. As such, the “comparative advantage” or “comparative
disadvantage” of each system can be determined and politically and
economically utilized (Steiner-Khamsi, 2004, p. 207).
Hence, on the one hand, the educational intelligent economy
amounts to a space where data is instrumental in assessing and
protecting the outputs of educational systems. On the other hand, in
this space, data is traded as a commodity among public and private
actors seeking to influence educational policy.Not incidentally, third
parties involved in the measurement of educational Big Data derive
financial benefits from providing statistical and predictive analytics
services (Crossley, 2014), in this sense underscoring the lucrative
character of educational data in the educational intelligent economy.
Consequently, analogous to Revel’s (2010) concept of economic
intelligence, educational intelligence represents a prized asset in this
econosphere, as national education systems and international
organizations, such as the OECD or the EU seek to: (i) master the
utilization of Big Data for forecasting and planning educational
reforms; (ii) determine the financing of education based on
performance, accountability and benchmarking; and (iii) influence
educational policy to effect adjustments or improvements in
educational systems.
Notwithstanding the predominant economic value of data in the
educational intelligent economy, it is important to note that, even
understood as educational intelligence, data has essential functions
for instructional processes on which any institutional performance
ultimately rests. In this context, educational intelligence takes on
rather benign or technical connotations in contrast with its primarily
strategic nature described above. For instance, Aziz et al., (2014)
conceptualize educational intelligence as a process to “effectively
manage data in an academic environment” using a model combining
“technologies, tools, and technique, people (students, academia, and
other stakeholders) to achieve constructive knowledge that helps
improve the teaching and learning process” (p. 52). Immersing the
concept into the ongoing discussion on Big Data analytics, Khan,
Shakil, and Alam (2016) suggests that educational intelligence “can
be used to describe the use of techniques, reporting applications and
analysis tools to gain insights into critical operations in the wider
education system” (p. 29). At this level, educational intelligence
acquires purely techno-statistical importance, driven by analytical
and algorithmic logics designed to generate objective
representations of educational inputs and outputs.
Although tactical and technical value, along with impact, are
uncontested features of educational intelligence, these only partly
explain the shaping of an educational intelligent economy. Three
additional descriptors need to be considered in outlining its emerging
contours. First, control and regulation of Big Data flows and who
exerts them are instrumental in understanding how public and
private actors manage access to the value of data as a commodity to
be exchanged on open markets. Operating in a fluid environment
characterized by rapid influxes and accumulation of structured and
unstructured data (Cantini, Chellini, & Sagri, 2016; Reimsbach-
Kounatze, 2015; Struijs, Braaksma, & Daas, 2014), poses challenges
that compel national governments and international organizations to
attempt the formulation of fitting policy technologies and develop
responsive digital platforms for managing Big Data in educational
systems. This leads to the second descriptor of the educational
intelligent economy, namely the purpose of intentional deployment
of Big Data in education. As national systems devise avenues to
increase their capacities for data organization and administration,
the aims for data collection become central to the question of
institutional and systemic data management in education: to what
ends do national educational systems gather and parse educational
intelligence? The responses are unquestionably many and varied, but
range from the evaluation of academic results to identify both
strengths and weaknesses to be addressed or the monitoring of
output for the enhancement of educational governance to converting
academic innovation into viable solutions to advance socio-economic
priorities. In this process, the manifest lucrative value of Big Data
serves as the third descriptor of the educational intelligent economy.
Even as the massification of data streams has a disruptive effect on
the so-called education markets (Ball, 2003; Robertson &
Komljenovic, 2016), a multitude of actors either compete against
one another or form coalitions to reign in its seemingly amorphous
expansion. At the same time, these actors converge to exploit the
commodification of data exchanges in education to extract revenue
and profitable endeavors for a coterie of contracting agencies
engaged in large-scale data analysis, in an environment Santori, Ball,
and Junemann (2016) denoted by the term “edu-business.”
While it can be argued that these semiotic markers of the
educational intelligent economy are not entirely new and could be
detected in other technological manifestations in economies and
societies over the past couple of decades, the novelty of this rising
space rests in its scale, complexity and variability in the era of Big
Data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive
analytics. Evermore sophisticated computing logics and designs
premised on capturing vast amounts of data originating from a
multiplicity of smart technologies have led to forms of “algorithmic
governance” in socio-technical systems (Pitt, Busquets, Bourazeri, &
Petruzzi, 2014) that have spilled over into shaping educational
bureaucracies through “governing software” promoted by non-
governmental intermediaries (Williamson, 2015). Unprecedented
computing power currently outstrips bureaucracies’ capacity to
formulate macro-policies in time to regulate the processing, storage,
and ownership of data across national, let alone global educational
networks. Where consensus on policy exists, this revolves around
the protection of privacy and personal data use rights, as
demonstrated by the General Data Protection Regulation enacted by
the European Union. From initial formulation to actual
implementation, it took eight years for this policy to come to fruition,
a period in which the nature and scope of data have changed in
radical ways. As salutary and necessary as this regulation is for
safeguarding the personal data of billions of users worldwide, it is
not designed (nor was it intended) to scrutinize the ownership and
exploitation of other forms of data publicly or privately traded across
global networks for commercial purposes. The continuous challenges
in regulating data flows to discourage illegitimate or harmful uses
through responsive policy mechanisms and instruments present a
complex problem for educational researchers in the educational
intelligent economy, as the sophisticated machinery of data
production continues to accelerate its pace to advance public
interests, but, more frequently, serve bankable intents.
Access to Big Data, the “new commodity” in the twenty-first
century economies, and its uses and potential abuses, has both
conceptual and methodological impacts for the field of Comparative
and International Education (CIE). Innovations that have been
restricted to the technology sector are gradually starting to move
into education as companies seek to monetize social data, dark data,
and Big Data. As Gorur, Sellar, and Steiner-Khamsi (2019) put it,
“twenty years after the market reforms in education, education
systems are drowning in data and their administrators have become
champions in international comparison” (p. 1). In this context,
educational intelligence is all around us and, therefore, the focus
over the past five years has been on how to better make sense of
data (both historical and contemporary) by detecting patterns to
amplify its value. Of particular importance in this discussion, is the
ability of data to restructure national educational systems to make
room for newer educational actors at the dawn of the so-called
“Global Education Inc.,” defined by policy actors and a neoliberal
imaginary (Ball, 2012). Even more pertinent for CIE is the potential
of these myriad types of digital data, whether promising or
questionable, to revolutionize comparative methodologies of
educational research (Gorur et al., 2019). Coming full circle then,
Sadler’s elevation of educational intelligence to the strategic status
of military or economic intelligence was prescient for the current era
of massive accumulation, transfer and parsing of data in a global
economy in which educational institutions wrestle for competitive
advantage, as partly demonstrated by the importance currently
placed on academic league tables (Crossley, 2014). Indeed, this
phenomenon is bound to exert a comprehensive and lasting impact
on the comparative analysis of such data, the implications of which
are difficult to fully comprehend at this point in time.

CHAPTER OVERVIEWS
Given our framing of data as a form of educational intelligence
situated at the intersection of Big Data, AI, Machine Learning, and
the Internet of Things in education and new economic imperatives
driven by the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the
chapters in this volume are clustered under four main thematic
areas. The first theme attempts to reconceptualize the role of data in
comparative and international education in anticipation of the
marked transformations that Big Data are expected to usher in
education more generally and CIE in particular. The chapters
grouped under the second theme ponder the conceptual power and
limitations of methodologies designed for the governance of
education, as Big Data introduces novel or alters technologies of
measurement and design of education. The third theme addresses
the forces exerting balancing or imbalancing effects on education,
workforce participation and industry in the era of Big Data. Under
the final theme, several chapters offer unique case studies ranging
from policy formulation to historical legacies (re)interpreted in the
context of educational intelligence, each with a focus on a distinct
region of the world. As this thematic compartmentalization suggests,
the volume brings together a group of scholars from a rich set of
multidisciplinary perspectives employing a variety of analytical
approaches to the sui generis phenomenon embodied by Big Data in
education and its central role in shaping the contours of the
educational intelligent economy. The rest of this introduction
provides concise descriptions of these timely contributions to this
fascinating area of inquiry.
In Chapter 1, Tavis Jules chronicles the emergence of data as an
instrument of educational governance and comparison, under the
tutelage of increasingly more influential policy-informing entities,
such as the IEA, OECD and other similar bodies. He contends that
data in itself can be considered an assemblage exerting
(re)territorializing effects on educational governance as it interfaces
relationally with assemblages operating by virtue of their subsuming
and, at the same time, subordinated relationship to data.
Consequently, Jules argues that, at the dawn of the educational
intelligent economy driven by the Big Data paradigm and associated
technologies of predictive analytics, a new age of educational
governance with a “big G” emerges, characterized by the co-
evolution, coordination, and concurrence of steering mechanisms, in
the interstices of which data sources form the algorithms of
governance with a “small g.” The implications for the educational
intelligent economy rest in the manner in which these layers of
governance will continue to seek an equilibrium or struggle to
prevent disruption as educational intelligence becomes increasingly
commodified, consumed, and codified in algorithmic technologies of
educational managerialism.
In Chapter 2, Bjorn Nordtveit and Fadia Nordtveidt offer a critical
narrative problematizing the indiscriminate use of Big Data to further
reinforce colonial tools of dominance in research. They also point to
the pressing need for CIE researchers to be aware of the perils and
paths of Big Data utilization and pattern replication from the global
north to the global south. The discussion is tied to the emergence of
educational intelligence in the global economy and how this may
either ameliorate or, on the contrary, exacerbate the imbalanced
duality of research imperatives from the North to the South (and
vice-versa).
Ryan Ziols provides an intriguing discussion in Chapter 3 by
analyzing the discourses on assessment and categorizations of mind
capacities via multiple socio-, bio-, psycho-, demographic factors.
Tracing the history of cybernetics to elucidate large-scale assessment
assemblages, Ziols applies a novel lens to examine the measurement
of the socio-psychological at the interface of Big Data, learning
analytics, and artificial intelligence, through the perceptron metaphor
in a continually comparative-competitive educational environment.
Chapter 4 delivers Brent Edward’s critique of mainstream
evaluation methodologies employed by supranational organizations
increasingly involved in and steering the global governance of
education. He draws attention to the pitfalls of statistical and quasi-
experimental approaches embedded in large-scale impact
evaluations, such as PISA or TIMSS, and the ramifications such
undertakings have for policymaking. Thus, Edwards cautions that in
the absence of ensuring ideal conditions or contexts, something he
argues is a virtual impossibility, policy decisions in the era of Big
Data is fraught with the perils of replicating skewed assumptions
about educational systems’ performance in comparative perspective
on a scale of magnification of unprecedented and unpredictable
consequences.
In Chapter 5, Jason McGrath and John Fischetti engage in an
imaginative examination of schooling based on innovative urbanism
principles embodied in the design of cities in three different
countries. Through anticipative thinking models drawing on urban
planning techniques, they attempt to cast a vision of the school as a
novel concept in the new millennium and problematize its place at
the intersection of three fundamental ideas, that is, the role of the
teacher and learner, the design of a school, and the purpose of
compulsory schooling. These ideas are explored through foresight
analysis informed by three possible scenarios providing alternative
proposals for their transformations given the pressing needs for
sustainability, incorporation of new technologies and promotion of
innovative pedagogical principles. Via a contrasting content analysis
of school publications, the authors contend that, notwithstanding the
possibilities inherent in novel conceptualizations of schools, the
traditional thinking about school designs and schooling practice
prevails in current educational policy.
Vasudha Chaudhari, Victoria Murphy, and Allison Littlejohn offer a
relevant discussion in Chapter 6 on the role of lifelong learning for
an emerging educational intelligent economy, given the digital
transformations brought about by Big Data and AI. If offers a vision
of how the complexities of incorporating Big Data into formal and
informal systems of education may alter the way in which individuals
learn and develop flexible competences enabling to navigate
intelligent digital systems enmeshing the economy. The chapter
further points to the need for regulatory frameworks to steer
intelligent educational data gathering to safeguard individuals’
privacy and right for data ownership.
In Chapter 7, Elizabeth Roumell and Kevin Roessger construct a
coherent argument for the connection between adult education
policy in comparative perspective, highlighting the use of PIAAC
data, and its potential to interface with Big Data analytics to drive
economic policies for a more intelligent allocation of workforce
resources. They explore how these processes may feed the
economic trends toward the use of “intelligence” to monitor and
induce self-regulation in socio-economic and educational systems to
inculcate intelligent choices for education throughout individuals’
lifespans.
Chapter 8 contains Aleksei Malakhov’s description of data mining,
machine learning and predictive analytics and their role on both
formal educative processes especially related to monitoring and
tracking of student performance. He then extends that discussion
with a consideration of the ramifications such uses of data may have
on employability in the Canadian context, but also in comparison
with other labor markets.
In Chapter 9, Petrina Davidson, Elizabeth Bruce, and Lisa
Damaschke-Deitrick examine the role non-profit organizations
promoting educational programing and performance play in the
steering of educational governance in the transition from a
knowledge economy to an educational intelligent economy. They
posit that such organizations expand their reach in the educational
market and the governance of educational use of data by sustaining
and sponsoring data-driven measurement instruments that inform
policy production for subsequent stages of educational output. They
suggest that a whole network of similar organizations exert
increasing influence in educational governance in an educational
intelligent economy.
Chapter 10 offers Luis Alvarez León’s examination of the arrival of
AI in the automotive industry and the manner in which this will
create tensions and cleavages in training levels between various
categories of auto engineers and technologists. He then draws
inferences on how formal educational provision will be necessary to
meet the challenges of managing AI in the automotive industry at
the intersection of workforce development and educational policy
addressing the infiltration of AI through production processes. The
discussion hints at how educational systems or structures will be
impacted by the AI revolution in the car industry and which sectors
of formal education should address it. Alvarez Leon argues that
systemic changes are necessary in terms of curricular needs or
adjustments to provide future automotive engineers with the
competences needed to function in an AI-driven car manufacturing
world. The narrative places emphasis on and analyzes avenues in
which educational systems in various regions are beginning to
address this phenomenon. It cogently concludes that any exploration
of policy actions and governance in this realm need substantial
consideration if the AI revolution is to benefit the educational sector,
industry and society as a whole
In Chapter 11, Florin Salajan analyzes the fledgling policy
discourse arising in the EU in the realm of Big Data, currently
promoted under the guise of forging a “data economy”. Salajan
argues that a coordinated approach to managing and controlling the
advent of Big Data in education is slowly emerging at the EU
policymaking level, as the challenges posed by this new digital
revolution remain elusive and unpredictable. However, the EU’s
tested approach to consensus-seeking and its recent trend-setting
regulation on data privacy with worldwide ramifications indicates
that a policy domain regulating Big Data may be a palpable prospect
as the EU enters the educational intelligent economy.
Chapter 12 offers Christopher Kirchgasler’s illuminating narrative
on the way in which data-driven decisions are embedded in a
colonial residue, expressed today through algorithmic educational
governance models in the image of academies-in-the-box that
contribute to the rise of an educational intelligent economy.
Kirchgasler provides insight into how the making of difference in
formerly colonized territories of educational intervention evoke the
continued presence of data as conveyors of educational programing
imperatives in underdeveloped regions, from western perspective,
and how Big Data preserves inequalities rather than eliminates them.
As part of their discussion in Chapter 13, Euan Auld and Yun You
critique the over-promise of AI and the confidence expressed by
governing authorities in employing it to create a qualitative push in
education, in particular in China (which straddles ancient traditional
and new ethno-technological values, and blends them). Auld and
You expand on the trends observed in the context of the
multifaceted uses of educational intelligence effecting the
governance and surveillance of education and society by Chinese
authorities. Framed in the broader narrative of a utopian-dystopian
dialectic treatment of AI as either a force for good or a tool for
malevolent intent, the Chinese drive for the use of educational
intelligence and AI for societal control is juxtaposed over moral
imperatives steeped in ancient cultural traditions. Thus, Auld and
You draw attention to the risks of the absolutist approach to manage
societies in the name of a new modernizing rhetoric at the dawn of
AI and educational intelligence. Any meliorative effects these may
have on society, the authors argue, may be offset by a suppression
of individual liberties in order to forge a conformist society with the
ambitious goals of a self-declared emerging technological
superpower.
In the final chapter, Sean Mackney and Robin Shields deliver a
pertinent and timely discussion on the rise of learning analytics,
debating its influence on multiple categories of individual and
institutional users (LA). They link the growing attention given to
learning analytics by academics, universities and commercial entities
to the potentially cumulative effect of the Big Data paradigm on the
treatment of data for performativity and surveillance in the
educational realm. Mackney and Shields raise legitimate concerns
over the sensationalization and overconfidence with which
proponents of LA view it as a tool for increasing the quality and
reputation of academic institutions, heavily supported by vendors of
learning management systems eager to capitalize on the yet
unfulfilled promises of LA. By the same token, the authors do not
dismiss the collection of LA data as a futile endeavor, recognizing the
genuine potential of such educational intelligence to promote
improvements in learning and in the act of teaching. Nonetheless,
they do question the overall significance of LA in the context of an
emerging educational intelligent economy and its ramifications for
the future of education and society.
REFERENCES
A brief history - and future - of credit scores. (2019, July 6). The Economist. Retrieved from
https://www.economist.com/international/2019/07/06/a-brief-history-and-future-of-
credit-scores
Aziz, A. A., Jusoh, J. A., Hassan, H., Rizhan, W. M., Idris, W., Zulkifli, A. P. M., & Yusof, S. A.
M. (2014). A framework for educational data warehouse (EDW) architecture using
business intelligence (BI) technologies. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information
Technology, 69(1), 50–58. Retrieved from
http://www.jatit.org/volumes/Vol69No1/7Vol69No1.pdf
Ball, S. J. (2003) Class strategies and the education market: The middle classes and social
advantage. New York, NY: Routledge
Ball, S. J. (2012). Global Education Inc.: New policy networks and the neoliberal imaginary.
New York, NY: Routledge.
Cantini, C., Chellini, C., & Sagri, M. T. (2016). Big Data analytics national educational
systems monitoring and decision making. World Journal of Social Science Research,
3(2), 219–242. doi:10.22158/wjssr.v3n2p219
Crossley, M. (2014). Global league table, Big Data and the international transfer of
educational research modalities. Comparative Education, 50(1), 15–26.
doi:10.1080/03050068.2013.871438
Department of Public Instruction for Upper Canada (1847–1866). Journal of Education for
Upper Canada. Retrieved from http://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06242
European Commission. (2002). Economic intelligence: A guide for beginners and
practitioners. Madrid, Spain: European Communities. Retrieved from
https://www.madrimasd.org/uploads/CETISME-ETI-guide-english.pdf
Gorur, R., Sellar, S., & Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2019). Big Data and even bigger consequences.
In R. Gorur, S. Sellar, & G. Steiner-Khamsi (Eds.), World yearbook of education:
Comparative methodology in the era of Big Data and global networks. New York, NY:
Routledge.
Khan, S., Shakil, K. A., & Alam, M. (2016). Educational intelligence: applying cloud-based
Big Data analytics to the Indian education sector. Proceedings of the 2nd International
Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I), IEEE, pp. 29–34.
doi:10.1109/IC3I.2016.7917930
Kitchin, R. (2014). Big Data, new epistemologies and paradigm shifts. Big Data & Society,
1(1), 1–12. doi:10.1177/2053951714528481
Lawn, M. (2013). The internationalization of education data: Exhibitions, tests, standards
and associations. In M. Lawn (Ed.), The rise of data in education systems: Collection,
visualization and uses (pp. 11–25). Oxford: Symposium Books
Mayer-Schönberger, V., & Cukier, K. (2013). Big Data: A revolution that will transform how
we live, work and think. London: John Murray Publishers.
Pitt, J., Busquets, D., Bourazeri, A., & Petruzzi, P. (2014). Collective intelligence and
algorithmic governance of socio-technical systems. In D. Miorandi, V. Maltese, M.
Rovatsos, A. Nijholt, & J. Stewart (Eds.), Social collective intelligence: Combining the
powers of humans and machines to build a smarter society (pp. 31–50). Dordrecht,
The Netherlands: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08681-1
Reimsbach-Kounatze, C. (2015), The proliferation of “Big Data” and implications for official
statistics and statistical agencies: A preliminary analysis. OECD Digital Economy
Papers, 245. Paris, France: OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/5js7t9wqzvg8-en
Revel, C. (2010). Economic intelligence: An operational concept for a globalized world.
Retrieved from http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/rielcano_en/contenido?
WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/defense+security/ari134-2010
Robertson, S., & Komljenovic, J. (2016). Unbundling the university and making higher
education markets. In A. Verger, C. Lubienski & G. Steiner-Khamsi (Eds.), World
yearbook of education: The global education industry (pp. 211–227). London:
Routledge.
Santori, D., Ball, S. J., & Junemann, C. (2016). Financial markets and investment in
education. In A. Verger, C. Lubienski & G. Steiner-Khamsi (Eds.), World yearbook of
education: The global education industry (pp. 193–205). London: Routledge.
Sislian, J. (2004). Representative Sadleriana Sir Michael Sadler, 1861–1943, On English,
French, German, and American school and society: A perennial reader for academics
and the general public. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2004). The global politics of educational borrowing and lending. New
York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Struijs, P., Braaksma, B., & Daas, P. J. H. (2014). Official statistics and Big Data. Big Data &
Society, 1(1), 1–6. doi:10.1177/2053951714538417
Williamson, B. (2015). Governing software: networks, databases and algorithmic power in
the digital governance of public education. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(1), 83–
105. doi:10.1080/17439884.2014.924527
Williamson, B. (2017). Big Data in education: The digital future of learning, policy and
practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

The Educational Intelligent Economy


Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things in
Education
International Perspectives on Education and Society, Volume 38, 1–11
Copyright © 2020 by Emerald Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1479-3679/doi:10.1108/S1479-367920190000038001
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
When the Kingsbridge manager turned toward the local bench, he
found Henry Cope standing near it.
“Well,” said the grocer, “what did old Riley have t’ say? Tried ter
browbeat ye, didn’t he?”
“Oh,” said Hutchinson, “he reasserted his claim to Hazelton, and
said we’d surely lose this game out of the count if we persisted in
pitching the man. You can see, Cope, that it’s no bluff; the meeting is
called for to-morrow night. I’ve got Ringling, a new pitcher, here, and
he’s clever. Don’t you think we’d better use him?”
“I notified you,” said the grocer irritably, “that Locke would pitch
this game, and he’ll pitch it. Put him in.”
“All right,” growled Hutchinson, in exasperation, “have your own
way.” As he sat down on the bench, he added to himself: “You pig-
headed old fool!”
So it was Locke who went on the slab when the umpire called
“play,” and Bancroft promptly sent Harney jogging forth to the pan
with his pet bat on his shoulder. Tom was given a rousing cheer by
his admirers.
“You know what to do to ’em, Lefty,” yelled a man on the
bleachers. “You’re the boy fer us. We’re backin’ you.”
Harney drove his spikes into the dry ground and squared himself,
his bat held high and ready. His posture was that of a man who
welcomed speed, and rather preferred that the ball should be up
around his shoulders; therefore, Locke opened with one across his
knees on the inside corner. True, Harney hit it promptly, but he only
batted a weak grounder into the diamond, and Labelle, grabbing it
quickly, whipped him out at first by a wide margin.
“Just as easy as ever!” whooped a delighted Kingsbridger. “Pick
off the next one, Tommy, old top.”
Trollop held his bat low, so Locke kept the ball high and close,
causing it to jump, and the Bancroft center fielder slashed at three
without making even a foul.
“Some pitchin’, Lefty, some pitchin’!” was the cry.
Wop Grady, his face knotted and puckered, as usual, slammed at
the first one handed him, and hoisted a high foul, which Oulds
smothered close to the wire netting that protected the people in the
stand; and Kingsbridge gave Locke a cheer that resembled a
cowboy yell more than anything else.
Every eye seemed to be turned on Bancroft’s new pitcher as he
teetered awkwardly out upon the diamond. The ball was thrown to
him, and he whipped three or four scorchers to Harney, at first,
before Labelle was ready to bat; but not until he toed the slab to
pitch to the batter did he put his remarkable delivery on exhibition.
Suddenly he swung far backward, pivoting on his left foot and
shooting his right arm and right leg into the air, while his left hand
carried the ball far, far over until it seemed that he was trying to
touch the ground with it. Up he came and forward on to his right foot,
his pitching hand sweeping through the air to send the ball burning
across a corner of the pan.
“Nom de tonnerre! ” gasped Labelle, his eyes bulging, his bat
hanging poised.
“Strike!” cried the umpire.
CHAPTER XL
PINWHEEL MURTEL

T he great Bancroft crowd laughed. They had come to Kingsbridge


to see their new southpaw show the Kinks something about
pitching. Incidentally they had made arrangements to take home with
them various sums of money which the foolish Kingsbridgers had
wagered on their team.
Bangs whipped the ball back, and Craddock again went through
with that remarkable delivery, looking, as one man expressed it, “as
though he was all arms ’n’ legs.” Again the ball bit a corner off the
plate, and Labelle, fascinated by the pitcher’s gyrations, swung too
late.
The only delay was that caused by the movements of Craddock
preliminary to pitching, and he did not waste a single “teaser” on the
Kinks’ first hitter. The third one was high, with a sharp slant on it, and
the little Canadian whiffed out.
“There’s pitchin’ fur ye!” yelled a Bancrofter. “What d’ye think o’
that?”
“Nom de tonnerre! ” said Labelle again, as he retired to the bench.
“Where he come from, de circus?”
Stark, following, fouled three times, but eventually the Bancrofter
twirler outguessed him, and sent him, fanned, to take his place
beside Labelle.
“Whut’s he got?” asked Reddy Crandall, pawing among the bats.
“Curves and speed,” answered Larry, in a low tone. “Don’t get to
watching his delivery and forget to watch the ball. Go to him! He can
be hit.”
But Reddy could not hit him that time, and the Bancroft crowd
howled as their new projector fanned the third man in succession.
There were some who began to prophesy that the Kinks would be
shut out without a hit on their own field. There are always wise heads
who make foolish prophecies early in every game.
The second inning opened with Bancroft’s left-handed hitters
coming up, and Locke, knowing they had been practicing against a
left-handed pitcher, worked with the utmost care and judgment, his
change of speed being most effective, as it caused two of the four
men who faced him to bump weak grounders into the diamond, to
their complete undoing.
With two down, Bernsteine, standing well back from the plate, with
a long bat grasped near the end, stepped into a “roundhouse,” and
lined out a pretty single. It did no good, however, for Lisotte banged
a grasser into the clinging paws of Labelle, and Bernsteine was out
at second on a force.
“You all hit him, boys,” cried a Bancroft man. “You’ll straighten ’em
out by and by, and lose the balls over in the slashings at the foot of
Bald Mountain. He’s due to get his bumps.”
Craddock continued his remarkable work, and, one after the other,
Anastace, Hinkey, and Lace were mowed down, even as their
comrades had fallen in the first round.
The Bullies were urged to fall on Locke, and Bangs led off with a
long drive to center, which Sockamore retrieved on the fly. Craddock
did not seem to be strong with the club, and he made a laughable
exhibition by seeking to hit the low ones on the inside corner, where
Locke kept the ball for a strike-out. Harney got one to his fancy,
through a momentary lapse on the part of Locke, but, by tall hustling
out in the left garden, Reddy Crandall picked the globule out of the
air.
“You’re hittin’ him now,” declared the encouraging Bancroft fan.
“Keep it up; they can’t get ’em all. You’ll put the blanket on him yet.”
The delight of the visitors may be imagined as Craddock finished
Kingsbridge’s list by handing the last three men upon it the same
medicine he had given the first six. Three innings had passed, nine
men had faced him, and not one of them had even hit the ball into
the diamond. It began to seem that the man who had prophesied no
hits and no runs for the Kinks might not be such a fool, after all.
Locke’s manner was almost trancelike as he toed the slab at the
beginning of the fourth. His first ball was wide, but Trollop caught the
second one on the seam and pounded it for two sacks, bringing the
Bancroft rooters up, roaring. They continued to roar, as Grady
bunted and sacrificed Trollop to third, where, with only one out, he
was in position to score on the squeeze play if the Bullies saw fit to
try it.
They did try it, but, knowing what was coming, Locke pitched to
Mace high and close, and Mace bumped a little pop fly straight into
Lefty’s hands. Holding the ball a moment, Locke smiled at Trollop,
who made ludicrous efforts to stop and turn back toward third. The
roaring of the Bancrofters died away in a disappointed groan as they
saw the ball tossed to Fred Lace for the third put-out.
“Oh, this is something of a game!” crowed Stark, capering toward
the bench. “It’s about time we came to life and touched that gangling
port-sider up a few. Stop watching his contortions, Labelle. This is no
vaudeville performance; you’re here to play baseball. Try to hit him,
anyhow.”
“You bet!” growled the Canadian. “I hit de ball dis time; you watch.”
Nevertheless, although he slashed viciously, he did not graze the
first one.
Suddenly Reddy Crandall, who had spent his time on the bench
staring at the long-geared pitcher, struck his thigh a resounding slap.
“I’ve got him!” he declared excitedly. “I’ve spotted that guy! I know
him now! Craddock, hey? No wonder them Bancrofters come up to
this town to-day loaded with bettin’ money. Craddock! Why, that’s
‘Pinwheel’ Murtel, of the National League, as good a man as Matty
himself, only he’s got a rotten disposition, an’ no manager can
handle him. He’s been blacklisted and outlawed time after time, but
he’s such a wonder they always fix it up somehow, an’ take him back
when he wants to come. That’s Murtel, I’ll bet my life on it. Fellers,
we’ll never score to-day with him pitchin’.”
Stark, standing near, had ceased to swing the two bats he had
picked up, listening to the excited words of Crandall. He had never
seen the famous and eccentric Pinwheel Murtel, but he had heard a
great deal about the man, as, doubtless, had every other baseball
player in the country.
“By Jove!” he muttered, having turned to stare at the lengthy
twirler. “I believe you’re right, Reddy.”
“I know I’m right,” said Crandall. “I’ve been trying to figure out who
the man was, and I’ve got him at last. At his best, he can walk any
three of us without a man down and then keep us from scoring. This
game is as good as settled, and a lot of Kingsbridge sports have lost
some good money to-day.”
“Nonsense, Crandall!” said Locke swiftly. “Even if the man is
Pinwheel Murtel, he isn’t invincible.”
“There goes Pete ag’in,” said Reddy, as Labelle fanned out the
second time. “Nobody’s even touched him.”
“What of it? The best pitchers in the business can be hit.”
“But not by batters in our class.”
“Yes, sometimes they can be hit by batters in our class.
Mathewson has been batted and beaten by a scrub country team, at
least once, according to his own confession; and other top-notch
pitchers have met the same treatment, much to their surprise.
“We’re going to fight this game through to the last ditch, I hope,
whether that man is Murtel or not. There’s no knowing what may
happen. At any rate, if I can hold them down, and you fellows keep
on giving me the support you have, they may not get any runs. We’re
not going to quit, are we, just because we’ve found out that
Craddock is Murtel?”
“No,” rasped Jim Sockamore, the Indian, “we won’t quit! You’re
right, Lefty; mebbe well beat that bunch yet, if we support you.”
It was plain, however, that Crandall’s discovery had taken the
courage out of him, and it seemed to fade away entirely as Stark,
also, fanned. Reddy stood up to the plate with his heart in his shoes
and swung apathetically, being sliced down without waste of energy
on the part of the pitcher.
CHAPTER XLI
GONE WRONG

L ocke muttered a single word of disgust as he rose from the bench


and walked toward the pitcher’s slab. On the way he stopped
suddenly, staring for an instant toward some teams and automobiles
down beyond the far end of the third-base bleachers. Then he
walked onward, but some of the flush was gone from his face.
Hutchinson, sitting silent on the bench, had done little toward
directing his players. Should the game go against Kingsbridge, as he
believed it would, he was prepared to answer criticism by saying that
Henry Cope’s interference had made it impossible for him to rely on
his own judgment and generalship.
Long before Crandall named the Bancroft pitcher, Hutch was wise
to the man. He had likewise observed that Locke did not seem as
efficient as usual, although good support had prevented the Bullies
from hammering out runs.
“When the break comes,” thought the rascally manager, “it’s
dollars to doughnuts they’ll get his goat for fair.”
The Kingsbridge pitcher looked ill as he found the slab at the
beginning of the fifth; his face was pale and set, and there was
something like a glare in his eyes. He seemed to be in haste to hand
Pat McGovern a pass, pitching one ball after another without
pausing to steady down, though both Oulds and Stark begged him to
take more time; and not one of the four he threw for Pat even grazed
a corner.
Following this, he bored Bernsteine in the ribs, and two men were
on the sacks, with no one down. Remembering the first game Locke
had pitched on that field, the Kingsbridge crowd declined to be
frightened.
“He’ll steady down in a moment,” they said. “Just watch him.”
But in a moment McGovern and Bernsteine each moved up a sack
on a weirdly wild pitch to Lisotte.
Hutchinson turned quickly to Ringling.
“Shake the kinks out of your arm, Ring,” he directed. “Hurry up
about it.”
Oulds had called Locke, meeting him a few steps in front of the
pan.
“What’s biting you now, son?” he growled, heedless of the howling
Bancrofters, who were demanding that the umpire should keep the
game going. “You’ve got the wabbles; I don’t believe you can see the
rubber.”
He wondered at the look in Tom’s eyes. Locke moistened his dry
lips.
“Yes, yes, Oulds,” he said huskily; “I’m all right now.”
“Well, you don’t look it,” retorted Hunchy. “Be you havin’ a fit, or
what? You’ve got to stop heavin’ the ball as fast as you can git holt of
it. Take your time, now. Don’t let Lisotte bunt; prob’ly he’ll try it. If
they start scorin’, they’re li’ble to win the game right here.”
“I tell you I’m all right now,” declared Locke savagely. “Give me the
ball.”
“He’s havin’ a reg’ler fit,” muttered the catcher, surrendering the
sphere and backing toward his position behind the pan.
Lisotte squared himself again; the coachers talked excitedly, the
Bancroft crowd rooted for runs; Kingsbridge was silent. Bernsteine
took a long lead off second, and McGovern danced back and forth at
third. Locke was taking time at last, apparently trying hard to throw
off the feverish wildness that had put him into “a hole.”
Swift, high, and close came the ball to Lisotte, difficult indeed to
bunt safely. But the little Canuck did not try to bunt; instead, as if he
knew just what was due, he met the sphere with a snappy swing,
driving it humming into the field between center and right.
McGovern danced gayly to the scoring station, Bernsteine
following with a rush. There was a wild riot on the Bancroft
bleachers, men leaping up and down, flinging their hats into the air
and yelling themselves purple in the face; for, with two runs scored,
no one out, Locke apparently all to the bad, and Pinwheel Murtel in
Big League form, it seemed that the game had been clinched for the
Bullies.
Since coming on the field, Tom Locke had been looking for Janet
Harting; somehow he was confident she would attend this game. It is
likely that thoughts of her had disturbed him and prevented him from
concentrating upon the work of pitching, although he had not been
aware of it.
Walking out to take his position at the beginning of the fifth,
however, his searching eyes discovered her blue parasol, and,
beneath it, Janet, sitting at the side of Benton King in the same
carriage in which he had first beheld her. As Locke looked, King
seemed to be returning his gaze. The pitcher saw Bent lean toward
the girl and say something, whereupon both laughed. For the time
being Tom lost his head, greatly to the advantage of the rejoicing
Bancrofters.
He knew it; no one on that field knew it better. And nothing could
have served better to sober him and bring him to his senses than
that wicked, timely line drive by Lisotte. He saw Ringling warming up
and Hutchinson talking to Henry Cope, who plainly was not feeling
right. Of course, the manager was asking permission—or demanding
it—to remove him immediately from the game.
“I’m a fool!” thought Tom. “I have played right into that rascal’s
hand.”
CHAPTER XLII
A SUDDEN SHIFT

H e hoped Cope would not yield. Perhaps the damage was done
already, but he would try to redeem himself if they did not bench
him.
Hutchinson was saying:
“What’s the use to keep him in, man alive? He’s lost the game
already.”
“If he’s lost the game,” returned the obstinate grocer, “what’s the
use to take him out? I don’t see no sense in that. Let him pitch some
more. He braced up t’other time; mebbe he will ag’in.”
Speechless with exasperation, Hutchinson turned back and
reseated himself on the bench. Seeing this, and understanding that
Locke would continue yet a while on the firing line, Stark ran to him,
grasped him with both hands, and spoke in swift, yet steady, tones:
“Pull yourself together, Lefty; you’ve got to do it, and you can.
Bangs is easy, and that man Murtel can’t hit a balloon. Put the ball
over, and take chances with them; we’re behind you. Don’t hurry,
and keep your head.”
Tom gave the disturbed captain a reassuring smile.
“I know I ought to be sent to the stable,” he said; “but I’ll do my
level best now. Watch me.”
Bingo Bangs was not much of a hitter, and the crowd saw Lefty
whip the ball through a single groove three times in succession, and
three times the Bullies’ catcher hammered the air. After the third
strike, the ball having been returned by Oulds, Locke caught a quick
signal from the backstop, and wheeled, to flash the sphere like a
shot into the hands of Labelle, who had dodged past the runner.
Labelle nailed Lisotte, and the two Canadians exchanged
courtesies in choice patois. This second swift putout awoke some of
the saddened Kingsbridgers, their sudden yells of satisfaction
mingling with the groans of the Bancrofters.
“Now we’re all right!” cried Larry Stark. “Take a fall out of old
Pinwheel, Lefty. We’ll make a game of this yet.”
Locke’s nerves were growing steadier. He had forced himself to
dismiss every thought of the girl who had treated him so shabbily,
and the man, her companion, who had flung him an insult and
escaped a thrashing. Until the last inning was over he would
concentrate his energies upon the work in hand.
As before, the Bancroft pitcher’s efforts to connect with Locke’s
slants were laughable; he could not touch the ball, even to foul it.
“Hold them down now, Craddock,” begged Fancy Dyke from the
bleachers. “They shut us out last time we was here; let’s return the
compliment to-day.”
Murtel grinned; thus far he had seen nothing that would lead him
to doubt his ability to hold the Kinks runless. Nor was he ruffled when
Anastace got a scratch hit from him in the last of the fifth; for the
three following batters were like putty in his hands.
On the part of Kingsbridge there was uncertainty and anxiety as
Locke returned to the slab, for now the head of Bancroft’s list, the
best hitters of the team, were coming up to face him, and they were
full of confidence. There were times, it seemed, when Lefty was
sadly erratic, and were he to slump again in this game the faith of his
admirers would be much impaired.
Never had Tom Locke put more brains into his pitching. He had a
speed ball that smoked, and his curves broke as sharply keen as a
razor’s edge; furthermore, he “mixed them up” cleverly, his change of
pace proving most baffling, and his slow ball always seeming to
come loafing over just when the hitter was looking for a whistler.
Harney snarled his annoyance after fanning; Trollop almost broke
his back bumping one of the slow ones into the clutches of Labelle;
Grady lifted a miserable foul back of first for Hinkey to gobble.
Hutchinson had temporarily deserted the bench, and the Kinks
came trotting in. Observing this, Locke grabbed Stark, and
whispered something in his ear, Larry listening and nodding.
“It won’t hurt to try it,” said the captain. “Here, Oulds.”
It was the catcher’s turn to lead off. He listened to Stark’s
repetition of Locke’s suggestion; then he stepped out to the plate,
slipped his hands up on the bat a bit as Murtel pitched, and bunted
the first ball.
The Bullies were taken by surprise. The ball rolled slowly down
just inside the third-base line, and Oulds, leaping away like a streak,
actually turned that bunt into a safe base hit, to the complaints of the
Bancroft spectators and the whooping merriment of the
Kingsbridgers.
Locke was promptly in position, and he followed with a bunt
toward first. Even as the bunt was made the bat seemed to fall from
his hands, and he was off like a shot toward the initial sack, leaping
over the rolling ball as he went. Only by the liveliest kind of hustling
did Murtel get the sphere up and snap it humming past the runner in
time to get an assist on Harney’s put-out.
Oulds was on second. Labelle, grinning, hopped into the batter’s
box, and astonished the spectators of the game, and the Bancroft
players, as well, by contributing the third bunt, which was so wholly
unexpected that he reached first by a narrow margin. And now the
Kingsbridge crowd was making all the noise, the Bancrofters
seeming stricken dumb with apprehension.
Murtel was angry, a fact he could not hide. For the first time he
seemed, with deliberate intent, to keep the first ball pitched beyond
the reach of the batter. Oulds, of course, had anchored temporarily
at third, and Labelle, taking a chance, tried to steal on that pitch.
Bangs made a line throw, but Lisotte, seeing Oulds dash off third,
cut it down, only to discover that the tricky Kingsbridge catcher had
bluffed. The Frenchman failed in an attempt to pin the runner before
he could dive back to the sack.
Locke had taken Crandall’s place on the coaching line back of
third, giving Reddy a chance to get his bat, as he was the hitter who
followed Stark; and it was the play to keep the ball rolling as fast as
possible. Tom was laughing and full of ginger, his words of
instruction to the runners sometimes sounding clear above the
uproar of the excited crowd.
“Keep it up! Keep it up!” he called. “Get off those cushions! Take a
lead, and score! Look out!” Murtel had made an attempt to catch
Labelle by a quick throw, but the little Canadian slid under
McGovern’s arm.
CHAPTER XLIII
A GAME WORTH WINNING

L ocke had forgotten the blue parasol and its owner; he had no
fleeting thought for Benton King; he was heart and soul in the
game.
With one out, it seemed an excellent time for Kingsbridge to keep
up the bunting, and attempt to score on it by the “squeeze,” so
Bancroft’s infield drew closer and the outfielders quickly came in.
At the plate, Stark gave a secret signal, changing the style of play,
and then he set the local crowd frantic by meeting Murtel’s high one
on the trade mark. With the outfielders playing in their usual places,
that line drive would have been good for a clean single, but while
they were chasing it down, Larry dug all the way round to third,
Oulds and Labelle romping over the rubber with the runs that tied the
score.
The whole Kingsbridge team was laughing, now, while Murtel,
enraged over being outguessed and deceived, was almost frenzied.
“It’s a great top piece you have, Lefty, old pal,” cried Larry Stark.
“That was the trick to get ’em going. Look at Pinwheel champ the
bit.”
But Hutchinson was back on the bench now, and he directed
Crandall to hit the ball out. Reddy, trying to respond manfully,
boosted an infield fly, and Stark was forced to remain on the sack
while it was caught. Had Anastace, coming next, taken a daring
chance and bunted, it is possible that the Bullies might have been
thrown into confusion again; but he had orders from Hutchinson to
hit, and in trying to do so he succumbed to Murtel’s strategy, expiring
in the box.
“Oh, this is some game, believe me!” shouted a Kingsbridger.
“Hold ’em where they are, Lefty. You’ve got the stuff to do it. We
depend on you.”
The Bancrofters who had wagered money on the tussle were not
as cocksure as they had been, and doubtless more than one,
Manager Riley included, regretted that matters had not been
privately arranged in advance so that it would not be necessary to
rely almost wholly on the prowess their new left-handed pitcher.
Surely their regrets became still more acute when, in the seventh,
Locke showed no let-up in form, and was not even ruffled when
McGovern reached first on an infield error, the other three batters to
face him going the way of all flesh.
“Oh, you Lefty!” was once more the rejoicing cry of the palpitating
Kingsbridgers.
Murtel came back with a shut-out, although Hinkey led off with a
scratch hit.
“Hold ’em, Lefty—hold ’em!” was the beseeching cry.
Bangs and Murtel faded like morning dew before a burning sun,
but Harney got into a speedy one and banged it for two hassocks,
setting the shaking Bancrofters off again in a tremendous uproar.
Nevertheless, the lucky batter remained at second, where Stark and
Labelle kept him dancing back and forth while Locke took Trollop’s
measure and put him away until the next game should be played.
With no one batting ahead of him, Locke advanced to the pan in
the last of the eighth without instructions. The first ball was too close,
but the second came slanting over, and he bunted. Again it was the
unexpected, and never had a prettier bunt been pulled off.
Nevertheless, it was only Tom’s wonderful knack of starting at high
speed with the first jump and covering the ground like a streak that
enabled him to reach the sack a gasping breath ahead of the ball.
“Safe!” cried the umpire.
The Bullies started to kick, nearly every man on the team taking
part in it. The crowd hooted and hissed, but it was only the nerve of
the umpire in pulling his watch which finally sent the Bancroft
players, growling, back to their positions. There was so much money
wagered on the game that they could not afford to lose it through
forfeiture; but henceforth they badgered the umpire on almost every
decision, even scoffing when he declared in their favor.
Labelle sacrificed Locke to second. Stark, thirsting for a hit,
hoisted a fly to center. Then, just as the visitors were breathing
easier, Crandall smashed a drive into right field.
Locke was on the way to third even before bat and ball met.
Sockamore, coaching, seeing Tom coming like the wind, took a
desperate chance, and, with a furious flourish of his arms, signaled
for him to keep on. Out in right field Mace got the sphere and poised
himself for a throw to the pan.
There was a choking hush. Staring, breathless, suffering with
suspense, the watchers waited.
“Slide!” yelled Sockamore, with a shriek like the blast of a
locomotive whistle.
Spikes first, Locke slid. The whistling ball spanked into Bangs’
clutches and he lunged to make the tag. But Tom’s feet had slipped
across the rubber, and the downward motion of the umpire’s open,
outspread hand declared him safe.
Again the Bullies protested, and again the umpire was compelled
to produce his watch. With difficulty the excited crowd was kept off
the field.
Laughing, Stark had helped Locke to rise, and made a show of
brushing some of the dust from him.
“It’s your game that wins to-day, if you can hold them down now,”
declared Larry. “It was bunting when they weren’t expecting it that
did the trick. Oh, say, there’ll be some sore heads in Bancroft to-
night!”
Henry Cope came bursting out of the crowd back of the bench to
shake hands with Locke.
“Sufferin’ Moses, whut a game!” he exclaimed. “If I ain’t under the
doctor’s care ter-morrer it’ll be queer. Keep ’em right where they be,
an’ we’ve won.”
“Lots of good that will do us when the game is counted out of the
series,” sneered Hutchinson.
“Even if they count it out,” returned the grocer, “folks round this
town’re goin’ to have a heap o’ Bancroft’s money t’ spend.”
Reddy Crandall did not score. He had done his part well, and he
uttered no complaint when Anastace failed to hit.
The Bullies had not given up. Savage, sarcastic, insolent, they
fought it out in the first of the ninth, bearing themselves, until the last
man was down, as if they still believed they would win. Locke,
however, had them at his mercy, refusing to prolong the agony by
letting a hitter reach first.
With some difficulty he fought off the delighted Kingsbridgers who
swarmed, cheering, around him, and would have lifted him to their
shoulders. When he finally managed to break clear of the throng he
thought suddenly of Janet, and looked round for her.
Benton King was driving toward the gate by which teams and
autos were admitted to the field. She had lowered her parasol, and,
before disappearing through the gate, she turned to gaze backward,
as if looking for some one in the midst of the still-cheering crowd that
covered the diamond.
CHAPTER XLIV
FACING HIS ACCUSERS

S easonable July weather caused discomfort for the seven


persons assembled in the dingy office of Rufus Kilgore for the
purpose of attending the meeting called to consider Manager Mike
Riley’s claims. Riley himself, in his shirt sleeves, sat with his back
toward one of the wide-open windows, a handkerchief tucked round
his neck inside his collar, grumbling and smoking. Anson Graham,
president of the league, a serious, middle-aged man, with block-
trimmed whiskers, who had the look of one who might be just, but
would rarely temper his justice with mercy, was talking to Kilgore, the
secretary of the organization, who occupied the chair at the desk.
David Farman and William Jones, representing Fryeburg and
Lakeport, respectively, were aimlessly discussing various topics,
such as the weather, crop prospects, and the ardent desire that the
usual number of boarders from the city might be netted by the
blandishments of advertisements which pictured the part of the
country in which they were interested as a summer Eden. Benton
King, appearing restless, talked in low tones to the ever-icy Bob
Hutchinson.
“Confound it!” growled Riley, looking at his watch. “Where’s Hen
Cope ’n’ that man Hazelton? It’s one minute of time fur the meetin’ to
begin, ’n’ they oughter be here.”
“Perhaps they won’t come,” said the lawyer. “Cope is a mule, and
he may try to block proceedings by staying away.”
“But he can’t do that,” rasped Mike. “We can go ahead without
him. It’s time. Hadn’t you better call the meetin’ to order, Mr.
Graham?”
At this moment, footsteps were heard on the stairs, and the door
opened, to admit the puffing Kingsbridge grocer, who paused to
remove his hat, mop his shining, moist dome, and look the
assemblage over.
“Good evenin’, ever’body,” he said pleasantly. “On time, ain’t I?”
“Just about, an’ that’s all,” answered Riley. “Where’s th’ slip’ry guy
that’s caused all this trouble?”
“You mean Locke? Ain’t he here?”
“I mean Hazelton, ’n’ he ain’t here.”
“That’s strange,” said Cope, plainly a trifle disturbed. “He lef’
Kingsbridge on the early train this mornin’, sayin’ that he’d meet me
here to-night. I thought sure I’d find him waitin’.”
“Left town, hey?” cried Riley. “Left town this mornin’! Well, I swear!
So help me, he’s skipped!”
He was not the only one through whose head had passed the
same thought, but Henry Cope immediately raised an agitated
protest against such an idea, asserting his belief that the absent man
would put in an appearance. They were induced to wait a while,
although it was likely that Cope was the only one who was not
satisfied that time was being wasted. In his heart, even the grocer
began to doubt.
As the minutes ticked away, Cope looked anxious, Riley smoked
and growled, Hutchinson remained cool, and Benton King fidgeted.
Finally Anson Graham said:
“Gentlemen, it is now ten minutes past the time set for this
meeting to be called, and I think we had better proceed without
further delay; for it seems that the party accused does not intend to
appear in his own defense. If you will please come to order, the
secretary will read the protest of Manager Riley which led to—”
Breathless and anxious, Henry Cope had been listening to the
sound of hurried footsteps on the stairs, and now, as the door was
thrust open and the tardy one stepped in, he gave an exclamation of
great relief and satisfaction.

You might also like