Commentary on "Social Facts, Moral Regulation and Statistical Jurisdiction: A Critical Evaluation of Canadian Census Figures on Education"

Abstract

The Shamai/Corrigan article, Social Facts, Moral Regulation and Statistical Jurisdiction: A Critical Evaluation of Canadian Census Figures on Education (The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Vol. XVII-2, 1987) presents a challenge in precisely determining the real intention of the authors. The title promises an evaluation of the Canadian census figures on education while the abstract promises that the bulk of the paper consists of an examination of trends in ethnicity and gender in relation to varying measures of educational achievement. The Introduction, however, suggests that the paper explores biases in educational data collected by Statistics Canada and then goes on to discuss the authority of the state in the collection of data and implies that the state then may abuse the data. While Shamai and Corrigan have much to say about objectivity and bias in data it is unfortunate that their own discussion is so encumbered by the literary trick of casting suspicion upon certain words through highlighting by the use of italics or quotation marks. For example, why in the opening pages of the article have the authors chosen to highlight in this manner words such as objective, without any bias, [rulers and state authorities ... counting 'their' people], [the determination of who are 'our people'], 'the State', [the 'Right' ... to collect a range of statistical information], facts, ['document' reality], ['produce' the data], very selective, 'descriptive facts' and 'neutral institutions'? Is it that the authors wished to imply, rather than state in a substantive way, that statistical agencies, such as Statistics Canada, are not neutral, are not objective but are biased and fabricate social fiction rather than social facts? In spite of the ambiguity of titles, abstracts and introductions perhaps what Shamai and Corrigan are really getting at is summed up in their statement that: