The political economy of technology and education
Why is so much of current discussions of education
"reform" centred on Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
and data-based decision-making?
What are the links in the education politics of ICT
between corporate interests and the promotion of digital technology and
"21st century skills" as key elements of the education future?
Joel Spring provides a valuable framework for
analysis of these questions in his book, Education Networks: power, wealth, cyberspace and the digital mind.
An obvious link for the corporations is
profits. If that were all there is to
it, developing a counter strategy that turned ICT in education into a
non-profit, social return project would be relatively simple. Spring, however, provides a look into deeper
social and technological issues that make the project much more complex than just
about profits. He provides a framework
for analysis.
Data
and the digital manager
One of the most common refrains about ICT and
education is a focus on data-based decision-making. How many times have we heard "if you
can't count it, you can't manage it."
The developers of centralized, standardized data systems promote this as
an essential tool for improving education through massive data, analytics and a
dashboard that will give administrators the information they need to direct
education.
Spring contends that what we are seeing is an
application to education of the tools of management of global
corporations. Data and spreadsheet
software to help make sense of the data is key to identifying sources of gains
or impediments to production and profits.
Managers monitor their employees using digital data.
The assumptions of digital management are brought
into education. Areas where data can be
produced become the most significant areas of attention. Standardized tests become central to digital
management.
If the data shows a decline in achievement, then the
school and the teacher become the focus.
The data system gives the tools for intervening from outside the
school. The target to be managed is the
school and the teacher.
A key factor is missing in this, of course. The life of the child is more than the school
and many other factors affect the child.
The data systems are not holistic and can seriously mislead,
particularly if you want to look at the
development of the full life of the child and not primarily his/her development
as a worker in the economy.
The data manager is constantly after more data:
"the student becomes the data and the school becomes the data
source." (14) Further, "the
digital mind of ICT managers tends to see schools as institutions compose do
data while not seeing the holistic context of students' lives such as their
families, neighbourhoods, and income levels. (24)
In Alfie Kohn's description, they miss the
"quality beyond measure." Diane
Ravich in a blog posting quoted management consultant W. Edwards Deming
countering the data is essential to manage message: "The most important figures needed for
management of any organization are unknown and unknowable."
An ideology
of "technology as the answer" spread through networks of power
Digital management of schools to produce workers to
be competitive in a global economy is appearing in the rhetoric of education
reform in most countries, almost regardless of level of economic development.
Spring describes this apparent global consensus among those with power and influence as
technology is "the panacea for world problems and the solution for
classroom instruction." (25)
The World Economic Forum (Davos) that holds an
annual gabfest of the global economic and government elite set the tone. It also has a subgroup, the Global Education
Initiative and other regional conferences that expand and amplify the dominance
of this idea.
Other promoters of ICT and its role hold conferences
as where ICT in education for global competition is promoted: the OECD, the World Bank and regional
organizations such as APEC, with its own Education Forum and the Inter-American
Development Bank. A few key corporations
also play a supporting role in these influence-peddling activities.
None of these are bodies that directly make
decisions about education, but they are crucial processes to building networks
among those who do make the decisions.
They do have the power and influence, though, to identify "which
ideas and people are 'sound'" for national education policies. (23)
Challenging
the promoters of ICT in education
Spring's examples of the operation of networks of
power promoting a particular version of ICT in education are drawn from New
York, where he works. To understand the
global nature of the push for IT in education, it would be useful to use his
framework to look at the education policies in other countries. This could start with a description of
national education policies and the place of ICT and data being used to manage
and control teachers and programs.
To develop a strategy that puts democratic
citizenship at the centre rather than the global economy at the centre, it is
important to identify the networks of power, with their links to transnational
organizations. To challenge these
networks of power requires alternative networks of those who believe it is
important that education, with or without ICT, be developed from a social,
democratic and holistic basis.
Reference:
Spring, Joel.
(2012). Education Networks: Power, Wealth, Cyberspace and the Digital
Mind. (Routlege: New York)
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