Private technology corporations, philanthropy and platforms in education: analyzing the enactment and effects of digital platforms in contemporary Chile.

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Philanthropy in the Global South: Exploring the Role of Professional Leadership, Technology, and Social Entrepreneurship in Education

Proposal

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digitization of education worldwide. Consequently, education has become a very lucrative sector for national and transnational technology corporations (Norris 2022; Verger et al. 2017), which are trying to expand their business in the techno-educational market with the aim of increasing their profits and influence over public policy education (Teräs et al. 2020; Williamson et al. 2022). Digital platforms provided by transnational technology corporations or BigTech (including Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) with the support of philanthropic organizations have been adopted in national education systems to address the challenges inherent to lockdowns and remote learning (Ozalp et al. 2022; Williamson & Hogan, 2020). Additionally, local private corporations operate and grow, supporting the digitalizacion of school systems, in aspects as diverse as the control´s time of teachers, the improvement of school relationship or the contact between parents and teachers, which occurs with special force in marketized educational systems.

In short, digital platforms have become key in the governance of education (Wilkins & Olmedo, 2018; Williamson, 2021), but also in the teaching and learning processes (Kerssens & Van Dijck 2022). Since the pandemic of the COVID-19, this process of digitalization has intensified, and new private actors have gained prominence in the Chilean education market. The closure of schools -which in Chile was one of the longest in the world- (Treviño et al., 2021), the consolidation of public-private alliances to support the health emergency (Gelber et al., 2021) and the growth of private programs aimed at improving learning and school relations in the post-pandemic times (Cabezas et al., 2022) are examples of the centrality of private digitization in Chile.

In this regard, the purpose of this investigation is two-fold. First, we aim to explore what are the main strategies of influence (Fontdevila et al. 2021) used by national and transnational technology corporations and organizational philanthropy to enter into schools in Chile. Second, we also analyse how principals and teachers enact digital platforms and to what extent they are transforming school governance and teaching practices. Theoretically speaking, the study draws on the policy enactment perspective, which considers policy implementation as a dynamic, negotiated, and relational process that involves the interpretation and translation of external policy mandates (Ball et al. 2012). This perspective points out that conventional policy implementation theories tend to omit the mediating role of school context in the enactment of educational policies and technologies. Unlike conventional policy implementation approaches, the policy enactment theory combines material and structural contexts (Keddie, 2014; Thrupp & Lupton, 2006), with elements of a cognitive (Spillane, 2009) and relational nature (Ball, 2012).

The investigation follows a comparative case study (Thomann & Maggetti 2020). Specifically, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 2 CEOs from technology corporations, 2 political actors, 4 principals and 8 teachers working in different school contexts. All interviews have been transcribed verbatim and analyzed following a thematic analysis. Additionally, we analyze -through content analysis- the regulatory framework from which digitalization processes are deployed in Chile, investigating how the space of influence of private corporations in the country's digital policy is built.

The findings unpack the strategies of influence deployed by technology corporations to sell their products to schools and show to what extent the introduction of digital platforms is transforming school governance and control within schools. The investigation also points out some emerging concerns regarding teacher professional autonomy, data protection and privacy issues and a change in conceptions of school relations. Finally, the findings also highlight the emergence of new subjectivities and the development of ambivalent discourses that combine appropriation, accommodation, and resistance toward digital platforms. It also shows the key role of principals' and teachers' agency to understand the recontextualization and effects of digital platforms in particular school contexts.

Authors

• Cristobal Villalobos, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

• Lluís Parcerisa, University of Barcelona