Conference Program

Educational systems are increasingly characterised by forms of data-informed governance in which schools are expected to rely on evidence, indicators and digital infrastructures to support educational improvement. In Italy, this orientation has been institutionalised through the National School Evaluation System introduced by DPR 80/2013, which requires schools to produce a Self-Evaluation Report (RAV)and engage in structured school improvement processes. Within this framework,teachers are progressively involved in practices of data-informed decision making and evidence-informed practice supporting organisational reflection and school development(Brown & Malin,2022;Mincu & Romiti,2022).At the same time,these developments unfold within broader processes of datafication and platformisation of education,where digital platforms and data infrastructures increasingly mediate professional work and decision-making(Perrotta & Selwyn,2019).Rather than interpreting teachers’ emotional responses to these transformations as individual resistance to innovation, this study approaches emotions as situated indicators of how teachers experience and negotiate emerging forms of data-informed school governance. Drawing on sociocultural perspectives on teacher identity and vulnerability(Kelchtermans,2005; Lasky,2005) and studies on the emotional practice of teaching(Hargreaves, 1998), the analysis interprets emotions as signals of how teachers position their professional role within evolving evaluation frameworks. In this perspective, professional agency is not conceived as an individual attribute but as a context-dependent capacity shaped by organisational conditions, professional cultures and opportunities for participation.

The study is based on qualitative interviews with 25 teachers working in five Italian upper secondary schools selected through purposeful sampling to represent different institutional profiles, territorial contexts and student populations. The sample includes general, technical and vocational schools located in metropolitan centres as well as in semi-urban and peripheral areas. Interviewees also represent different professional roles within schools, including teachers responsible for digital innovation,school evaluation,mentoring of newly appointed staff,newly appointed teachers,and teachers elected to school governing bodies.

Data were analysed through a structured content analysis approach inspired by the conception of content analysis as inquiry (Losito, 2007). A data matrix was created with interviews as rows and thematic domains derived from the interview protocol as columns. The analysis focused on four areas:the role of data in school functioning,perceived constraints in the use of data,professional competences related to data use,and broader concerns regarding governance and participation.Findings reveal a pattern of professional ambivalence rather than resistance toward data practices.Teachers recognise the potential value of data for informing pedagogical and organisational decisions.At the same time, they express concerns related to interpretative complexity,transparency,exposure to judgement and insufficient institutional support.These concerns are rarely directed at data or technologies themselves;rather,they reflect uncertainties about the organisational conditions through which data are produced,interpreted and used within schools.Emotions such as caution, uncertainty and professional fatigue emerge particularly where training,mediation and collective decision-making processes appear weak.Therefore, teachers’ emotional responses also illuminate the democratic dimension of school governance, revealing how far data practices are perceived as shared professional resources or as externally driven accountability devices.The study suggests that these emotional responses offer a useful analytical perspective for understanding how data-informed governance is experienced in everyday school practice and how the expansion of data infrastructures may reshape teachers’ professional space of participation and responsibility.