Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace: Markets, EdTech, and the spaces of schooling

Abstract

For decades investors have sought to find ways of profiting off the billions of public dollars spent annually on systems of public schooling across the world. This interest has coincided with the growing marketization of systems of public schooling, especially in the United States, as well as the increased use of educational technologies (or EdTech). This study examines the implications of the growing use of profit-driven educational technologies for the politics and spatial practices of schooling. Specifically, it examines past experiences with market-oriented EdTech systems in Oregon and Michigan to highlight how the combination of market systems of governance and profit-driven EdTech practices depend on the deconstruction of links between schools, communities, and students in order to roll out aspatial and apolitical educational practices that maximize profits. The placeless vision for education embedded in profit-driven EdTech helps promote the reproduction of dominant orders and stifles place-based struggles over educational justice.

Tracks and Trails of Ed-Tech Firms in India

“…In 2022, Mazari studied how EdTech interventions can exacerbate the digital divide that further compounds the disadvantage of marginalized groups. Cohen (2022) examined the implications of the growing use of profit-driven educational technologies for the politics and spatial practices of schooling in the same year. The research work of Tripathy and Devarapalli (2021) contends that EdTech firms mainly concentrate on the young minds' learning process through effective original content, live streaming video lectures through animation, and interactive simulations that help students understand topics easily and in a fun manner.…”

Ontario Teachers’ Policy Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…These findings demonstrate the need to consider spatial context as part of a broader theory of policy enactment. Further, given that education technologies are known to alter power relations within schools, shape flexible and mobile entrepreneurial subjects, and participate in processes of social reproduction (Cohen, 2022;McCreary et al, 2013), future research should examine how online learning during the pandemic impacted these transformations during and following the pandemic.…”