Investigating the ‘private’ in the educational technology field: imaginaries and precarity in educational provisioning in India

Abstract

"Globally, the rise of the Educational Technology (EdTech) field has been accompanied by the growth of the market in education. Working alongside the dispersed policy networks and the discourse of ‘disruption’, the interests driving EdTech have proposed an alternative form of educational provisioning where educational services are produced, exchanged, and consumed on a for-profit basis. Such a form, underpinned by a global education industry, a favourable international policy environment, and transnational sources of influence, has paved the way for the longer-term transformation of education systems, institutions, and practices, including the repositioning of teachers in an ever-changing educational labor market. Education technically is a non-profit endeavour in India, by virtue of any educational institution, contra a training institution, having to register itself as a society, trust or non-profit company. The reimagining and reconfiguring of education implied by the alternative model of educational provisioning has significant implications for the idea of education as a non-profit activity and the maintenance of the boundaries between education as a service and education as provisioning underpinned by a for-profit approach. However, these implications are yet to be understood clearly or subject to careful public scrutiny. It is in this context that this study examines the phenomenon of a new form of educational provisioning driven by EdTech and for-profit objectives in India, by mapping out the corporate interests in education and investigating the dynamics that are shaping it at the discourse level, organizational level, and level of individual teachers. The possible counter-narratives, where teachers and other important stakeholders express their concerns about the dominant EdTech narratives, are explored by using the methods of interviews and participant observation. The study deploys virtual/digital ethnography methods to trace the discursive constructions between the organizational field and the practice field. Finally, the concepts of ‘precarity’, ‘deprofessionalization’, and ‘gig academia’ are used to locate teachers and teaching within the fast-growing EdTech field in India. Twenty-two EdTech startup founders, executives, and teachers are interviewed to understand how the EdTech field and its logic are applied in everyday lives. In addition, 89 policy documents and reports were analyzed to make sense of how the discourse on EdTech gets legitimized and authorized through its circulation in policy circles. The study also analyzed 99 images to understand the phenomenon of ‘futuring’, which EdTech companies deploy to drive investments in education. The findings suggest that corporatization is becoming a dominant logic, with several for-profit players entering the EdTech field. Even public provisioning of education is getting transformed, with the corporate style increasingly becoming the norm. Many functions of educational policymaking and implementation have been outsourced to players that have for-profit interests, with philanthropies and consultancy firms playing an important role in educational policymaking. This reorienting of education through EdTech investments has consequences for teachers’ subjectivities and their increasingly ‘insecure’ position in the EdTech field. The study seeks to contribute to theory-building by providing a critical perspective on the political economy of the EdTech field in India and how the work of teachers is currently organized."