Tracing Global Platformisation Locally: Differences and Inequalities in Teachers’ Digital Work in Publicly and Privately Owned Schools

• The research critically examining the platformisation and integration of global Big Tech - Google (Alphabet), Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft - into education has grown considerably, as shown in recent special-issued and thematic journals (Decuypere et al., 2021; Nichols & Garcia, 2022). One critical question raised in the research is how the integration of platforms have created infrastructural lock-in effects as part of its business model (Kerssens & van Dijck, 2021). Therefore, as education institutions procure platform-compatible hardware, systems and apps, they not only buy into specific platform infrastructural ecosystems, they also need to accept their data extraction, automated synchronisations and algorithmic orderings of content. Based on a working life-funded research project study, we aim to show how the global platformisation is co-shaped by local edtech market governance and public procurement regulations within a domestic setting. This, we argue, creates different digital ecosystems and work conditions for schools and teachers. For investigating platformisation’s local establishments and consequences, we have ethnographically traced teachers’ work relating to platforms in the Swedish setting based on its two school ownership forms, public and private schools. This has been done from within, by shadowing teacher work and engaging them in reflective interviews, and out to policy ethnographies on platformisation regulations.The latter included that we infrastructurally traced the digital ecosystems of public and private schools by scraping techniques that mapped service providers that form their platform infrastructures respectively. We were able to match the service providers active in the Swedish edtech-market (visible in ‘the Edtech-map’, edtechkartan.se) with their school-clients. Even if there are many similarities in how education institutions and teacher work are conditioned by platformisation, significant differences appear. In contrast to private education who can set up their platform infrastructures more freely, public institutions are regularly required to perform labour-intensive public procurements of platforms and devices. These processes cause interruptions that require extra work and repairs. The study follows up on the forced acceleration of platformisation due to the pandemic in the Nordic and European countries (Cone et al., 2021). In particular, it should contribute methodologically and empirically to show the powers of platformisation are played out in local settings and affect the work and labour of teachers differently and unequally. The paper raises questions on how more sustainable work situations for teachers are possible as schools are platformised. References Decuypere, M., Grimaldi, E., & Landri, P. (2021). Introduction: Critical studies of digital education platforms. Critical Studies in Education, 62(1), 1-16. Nichols, T.P., & Garcia, A. (2022). Platform Studies in Education. Harvard Educational Review 92(2), 209-230. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-92.2.209 Cone, L., Brøgger, K., Berghmans, M., Decuypere, M., Förschler, A., Grimaldi, E., Hartong, S., Hillman, T., Ideland, M., Landri, P., van de Oudeweetering, K., Player-Koro, C., Bergviken Rensfeldt, A., Ronnberg, L., Taglietti, D., Vanermen, L. (2021). Pandemic acceleration: COVID-19 and the emergency digitalization of European education. European Educational Research Journal 21(5), 845–868.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

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