Algorithmic technopolitics and cosmo-diversity: a case study of digital governance and socio-technical imaginaries in Education

Abstract

This article focuses on diagnosing the technopolitics of digital governance in the field of formal education, analysing the ecosystem of data, algorithms and platforms (DAP) that regulate and mediate digital activity in educational institutions, whether in teaching, in organisational management tasks or in the field of lifelong learning. It also examines the socio-technical imaginaries that are contributing to the implementation of contemporary global digital reforms, inspired by the premises of technological accelerationism. In the first and second parts, the implications derived from the transition towards this data-algorithmic knowledge economy model are anticipated, addressing the issue of political networks of algorithmic governance in education and the role played by socio-technical imaginaries in the consolidation of these ecosystems. In the methodological section, research is presented based on a case study carried out in the community of Castilla y León regarding algorithmic governance processes in schools and their impact in terms of social justice and participatory parity. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers, members of management teams and those responsible for lifelong learning, adopting a discursive analysis methodology that allowed us to offer a series of results about the use that the educational community makes of the pre-established designs in the ecosystem of digital platforms and the role played by data within such structures. In the final discussion, we argue for integrating a techno-diversity perspective that focuses the object of study on the need to use algorithmic technologies and digital educational platforms with greater levels of civic awareness, social justice and systemic sensitivity.