Discourses regarding education governance in the digital age at K-12 level: Possibilities, risks, and strategies

The ongoing formation and fast evolution of the digital data era will inevitably lead to extensive and profound changes in the field of education governance. This research adopted “what are the possible changes, risks and strategies in the process of education governance in the era of digital data?” as the main research question to collect, analyze, and interpret in-depth interview data from 11 participants of education governance in S province of China. The findings of this research are: the arrival of big data era expands the space of education governance, optimizes the concepts and methods of education governance; in the process of weaving big data into education governance, errors and risks, such as data supremacy, digital surface and even digital evidence occur. Based on the above findings, this paper discusses the objectivity, humanity, accuracy, and contextualization of education governance in the digital age, and then points out that effective governance of education in this era should consider the coping strategies from three aspects: the value demands of education governance, the complexity of education governance environment and the possible pitfalls of education digital reform and digital governance.