Education management as an exact science (Russia, first half of the nineteenth century)

The author reveals an essence of bureaucratic knowledge by means of which the nature of educational management (of schools and universities) in the Russian Empire in the 1830s was changed. The article shows the difference between bureaucratic and scientific knowledge. The author proves that the organization of regular and universal data collection (in the form of reports and references) has created a system of collective responsibility, general employment, vertical circulation of information. At the same time, the content of the created knowledge did not infl uence the decisions of the Ministry of Public Education. Disciplinary and representative aspects of this practice - humility of professors and teachers participating in it, timely implementation of the instructions coming from above, the consistency shown in tables and the text of digital indicators were much more important for bureaucrats. Collected data were used by the Ministry to showcase the efficiency of control it exercised.

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Opracowanie rekordu w ramach umowy 509/P-DUN/2018 ze środków MNiSW przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę (2019).