Edu-business within the Triple Helix : Value production through assetization of educational research

• Growing demands on evidence-based teaching and an increasing business involvement together constitute a double-sided transformation of compulsory education in which educational research has become a commodity and a selling point for commercial companies. Thus, new intersections – or Triple Helix – between business sector, research and school are emerging as an asset within business contexts.  The aim of the paper is to explore in what different ways, and with what different motives, do people in edu-business use research, and what kinds of values do they expect to produce through the use of research? The paper builds on interviews with 30 Swedish edupreneurs, i.e. people working within edu-business such as ed-tech .From an analysis the interviews, five different approaches are identified, describing the edupreneurs’ manifold ways of using, relating to, and translating research into sellable products. The different approaches are categorized as Philanthropists, Influencers, Ambassadors, Brokers, and Engineers. Using the theoretical lens of assetization, we show how different values are produced through these different approaches. The value could be (1) economic – strengthening the company’s credibility and brand; (2) pedagogical – changing teaching and learning practices; (3) political – lobbying for policy change; (4) academic – defining useful research and (5) social – building networks.  However, there are also similarities regarding the different approaches; they all emphasize that Triple Helix collaborations ought to be naturalized, however preserving the entrepreneurial right to define useful research and meanwhile providing legitimacy through the power of research – an important asset on the edu-market. A remaining question, then, is what ‘research use’ becomes in school, when its existence and dissemination is translated through commercial interests? What does it mean for an education system struggling to become ‘based on science’?  The study is relevant in a Nordic perspective (and beyond) since Triple Helix collaborations, evidence-based education and a growing edu-business are cultural and political phenomena travelling across national borders. Considering that, we claim that there is an urgent need for a discussion on how they are played out in the context of Nordic welfare states. 

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

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

Keyword

commercialization of education

discourse analysis

science studies

Barn- och ungdomsvetenskap

Child and youth studies

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)