ERIC Number: EJ1255342
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Jul
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0895-9048
EISSN: N/A
Digital Meritocracy: Intermediary Organizations and the Construction of Policy Knowledge
Chang, Ethan
Educational Policy, v34 n5 p760-784 Jul 2020
This ethnographic case investigates the relationship between the daily organizing work of one education technology "intermediary organization" (IO) in Silicon Valley, California and federal education technology policies. I argue that the IO constructed policy knowledge that reified discourses of "digital meritocracy": a belief in digital technologies as a means of evaluating individual success, regardless of historic, place-based material inequities. To develop this concept, I trace themes of "personalization" and "everywhere" as they emerge in the IO's daily work and in federal education technology policies. This study extends research on IOs as "brokers" of information, resources, and social ties between public schools and private service providers and argues that IOs also construct "policy knowledge," or "definitions of what counts as education."
Descriptors: Ethnography, Case Studies, Correlation, Educational Technology, Educational Policy, Federal Legislation, Evaluation Methods, Information Technology, Policy Analysis, Information Sources, School Business Relationship, Definitions, Criticism, Democracy, Power Structure, Nonprofit Organizations, Corporations, Individualized Instruction, Equal Education, Social Differences, Barriers, Access to Education, Kindergarten, Elementary Secondary Education, Neoliberalism, Acceleration (Education), Talent
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2814
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A