Critical Digital Education Research Group

This theme is concerned with the ways digital technologies produce or exacerbate existing social and educational inequity. In contrast to the instrumental value of innovation, we make visible the complex economic, cultural, and political injustices that can arise in the development and use of technology. See, for example, our EdTech Equity and Tech for Good projects.

This theme draws attention to the economic and geo-political dynamics that shape the everyday uses of technology in classrooms. Our work charts the ways that an array of political and commercial actors have increasing power in influencing policy and practice, where commercial interests can stand in for public concerns. See, for example, our AI in Education Policy project.

This theme examines the ways trace data, algorithms, and ‘AI’ are increasing ordering and providing instrumental rationales for education and wider society, displacing expertise, normalising surveillance, generating new kinds of authoritative knowledge, and shaping forms of policy making. See, for example, our work that has unpacked the ‘black box’ of AI in education, examined the ways data-driven technologies reinstate behaviourist pedagogies, and found disconnections between the governance of trace data and ethical debates in the field.

This theme develops alternative visions and methods for ethical, inclusive, democratic, environmentally sustainable and community-driven education and technology. Through engaging diverse constituents and marginalised groups across the globe, this work aims to unpack the power relations at play in the design and production of EdTech. See, for example, our  Teaching for Digital Citizenship  and Mapping Participatory Co-design projects .