Edu-Solutions and the Edu-Technology Market as an American Export: Examples From the Global South

• In Event: Public-Private Partnerships Across Geographic Contexts and Their Implications for U.S. Education Reform

Abstract

The exponential growth of the technology-based industry has produced a vast for-profit education market with enormous growth potential (global education market was estimated at USD$5 trillion in 2014). The increasing absorption of public schools into this market has included a redesign of teaching and learning or "edu-solutions" based on the logic of profit and efficiency, in accordance with the vision of new policy “edu-preneurs”, few of whom are educators. This fiscal impetus has impacted education delivery shifting education policy and planning from a national to global endeavor that is increasingly shaped by multinational corporations. Alarmingly, children and families in some of the world poorest communities have become the primary target of this industry, with shareholder reports referring to the “untapped potential of the world’s bottom billion.”

While virtual technologies could provide more democratic, freer, universally accessible forms of education, a contrary reality also persists. The world’s largest multinational education corporation, Pearson, operates in 70 countries, positioning itself as the world’s education service provider, often using technology-based one-stop-shop programs from curriculum and assessment, to teacher training and data-based decision-making software. Pearson has entered emerging economies (e.g. India, Phillippines) through PALF, a venture capital investment fund that “makes significant minority equity investments in for-profit companies to meet the growing demand for affordable education across the developing world.” This public-private partnership approach allows governments to outsource education systems (instead of investing in teachers and infrastructure) and enables corporations like Pearson to make considerable profits off of public sector investments.

Throughout the world we are experimenting with an array of technology-based education reforms lacking any evidence base. In many ways, these new education technologies have redesigned the delivery of education – standardizing and commoditizing education, reducing educational processes and student-teacher relationships to easily quantifiable and recorded forms, and distancing educational professionals from the process of educational engagement (ultimately deprofessionalizing and deskilling the teaching profession). By tracing the evolution of the edu-solutions industry in India, Mexico, Uganda, Kenya and Liberia, this presentation discusses how technology, big data, A.I., virtual learning, and standardized assessment/data systems serve as a conduit for private interests entering the classroom. It examines the approaches and impacts of some of the largest actors in Global Education Industry.

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Author

• Carol Anne M Spreen, New York University