Tensions Between Global Competition and Digital Equity: A Foucauldian Analysis on the National Education Technology Plan

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 50
  In Roundtable Session: Poststructuralism, Neoliberalism, and Education in the 21st Century

Abstract

This paper analyzes the flagship national technology policy document, National Education Technology Plan (NETP) through the Foucauldian genealogy method, aiming to unearth how the power relations live, diffuse and localize in the context and challenge the dominant truth of the digital equity. Using the macro-level and the micro-level analysis through the theoretical lenses of Foucauldian power theory and Gore (1995)’s techniques of power, the paper found tensions between education privatization and digital equity. This paper calls for elaborated technology policies to address the potential uncertainty and equal scrutiny between the industry makers and education leaders, to achieve quality learning experience and digital equity in public education.

Author

• Xiaoyu Wan, University of Rochester