Problematizing the “Digital Society”: The Digital Education Divide in Crisis Contexts

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Society is increasingly digitized and connected, with computers, algorithms, and artificial intelligence mediating much of people’s daily activity in one way or another. The digitalization of society, learning, work, and the economy profoundly impacts the future course of human prosperity and ecological sustainability. Though dominant imaginaries position digital technologies as key for achieving sustainable development and societal progress, rapid digitalization comes with hidden costs. For instance, the ICT ecosystem has been estimated to account for more than two percent of global carbon emissions (Freitag, et al., 2020). Additionally, though the world is increasingly digitally dependent, more than half of the world’s population is still offline or unable to reap the benefits (Transitions Research, 2024), resulting in what is commonly referred to as the ‘digital divide’.
The digital divide has been well documented for the last thirty years and encompasses both issues of access to and usage of computers and Internet between: industrialized and developing countries (global divide); various socioeconomic groups within single nation-states (social divide); and different kinds of users with regard to their political engagement on the Internet (democratic divide). Digital disparities between these groups reinforce social inequities and cause a persisting information gap amid those people with access to and using these technologies, and those that are not (Britannica, 2024).
The COVID-19 pandemic made the world acutely aware of the existing digital divide and its perpetuation of social inequities, which heralded an era of intense investment in digital services targeting disenfranchised communities. In particular, there was a surge in the development of digital education platforms, content, and technologies to ensure the continued learning for children unable to attend school. While the EdTech industry has rapidly grown over the last three decades, in 2020 it seized the opportunity to massively expand and capitalize on calls for bridging the digital divide for marginalized learners in both well-resourced countries in the Global North, as well as less-resourced and more fragile contexts in the Global South (Thompson, 2021).
EdTech originally made its way into Education in Emergencies (EiE) work through the use of radios, basic cell phones, and television, and has become more sophisticated over time with the introduction of computers, tablets, and smartphones. This has been complemented by expanded access to internet and wifi, the development of educational software and digital curricula, and the introduction of gamification and app-based modes of learning and communication (Ashlee et al., 2020; Tauson & Stannard, 2018). Much of this work has centered on basics like literacy and numeracy, though since the COVID-19 pandemic SEL and psychosocial support have slowly become a priority for EdTech solutions in crisis contexts. However, while much EdTech work in the Global North aims to address broader issues of inequity (McCann, 2023), meaningful discussions around digital equity, and equity in general, have yet to permeate the EiE community. Tight timelines, limited resources, donor requirements, and lacking infrastructure make it difficult for EiE actors working on digital education initiatives to reflect on questions such as: how do different countries and communities conceptualize what a digital society is, looks like, and operates? what are the drivers of the digital divide in crisis contexts? who benefits from the digital divide and who is marginalized by it? and how could EiE interventions exacerbate or address the digital divide?
This panel will initiate discussion and debate among attendees to begin to grapple with some of these questions. The first paper will help frame the discussion by using the popular EiE intervention of social emotional learning (SEL) as a vehicle to explore larger issues of equity within EiE work. The author will highlight how there is a lack of critical reflection on the equity implications of EdTech in crisis contexts and how digital SEL interventions have the potential to both bridge and widen the digital divide for crisis-affected communities.
The second paper will build on this framing and integrate discourse on localization. Localization emerged as a humanitarian priority with the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, where actors pledged to make humanitarian action “as local as possible and as international as necessary.” While localization (often conflated with contextualization) of SEL programming — both digital and analog — in crisis contexts is lauded as a best practice (INEE, 2024), it is often performative and cursory (Dalrymple, 2023). Correspondingly, the author will showcase how the nexus of localization, digitization, and SEL interventions may actually serve to exacerbate the digital divide for crisis-affected communities.
The final paper helps to nuance this discussion by sharing positive learnings from the War Child Alliance’s Can’t Wait to Learn (CWTL) program. Though implemented across Chad, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, and Ukraine, this paper presents a deep dive on CWTL’s delivery in Uganda. In this context, rigorous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of CWTL in accelerating learning gains when embedded into government schools, compared to education as usual (Turner et al., under review). This encouraging evidence has led to adoption of CWTL by the District Local Government, following a one year research-informed transition of management and implementation responsibilities. This paper will share the extensive learnings generated by this process, as well as reflections on aligning digital education programming with multiple policy priorities, system needs, and local conceptualizations of what developing a “digital society” means.
Through the presentation of these papers, this panel aims to initiate critical discussion about the intended and unintended consequences of EiE work. We aim to make space and initiate contemplation and debate about how a ‘digital society’ is conceptualized in fragile contexts in the Global South and the equity implications of these conceptualizations. It is only by taking the time to critically reflect on these issue that EiE actors can begin to shift digital education interventions—and EiE programming more broadly—towards its more equitable and transformative potential and avoid exacerbating the digital divide, and larger social inequities, for crisis-affected communities.

Sub Unit

• Education in Conflict and Emergencies SIG

Chair

• Rena Deitz, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Digitized SEL in Crisis Contexts: Bridging or Widening the Digital Divide? - Kelsey A. Dalrymple, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Failure to Localize: How Digital SEL May Exacerbate Inequities in Humanitarian Contexts - Rena Deitz, New York University

• Can’t Wait to Learn: Learnings About Engaging Local Government - Marwa Zahr, War Child; Luke Stannard

Discussant

• Nikhit D'Sa, University of Notre Dame