Diachronic and Synchronic Analysis of Educational Practice: taking account of the life history

Abstract

It is argued that evaluation of educational practice, including formal accountability procedures, should make greater use of qualitative data, and particularly should pay more attention to educational experience within the individual life history. Any analysis of subjective experience of education must take account of the elements of time and narrative. The article imports the distinction between synchronic and diachronic analysis from structural linguistics, arguing that the current emphasis on forms of synchronic analysis leads to very narrow forms of evaluation with limited validity. The argument is made for supplementing such synchronic analyses with forms of diachronic analysis incorporating subjective perceptions on education in the context of the life history. Systematic collection of such life history data can help to generate an important evidence base from which to evaluate educational policy and practice over the long term.