Many of our projects focus on the transformation of education governance, which includes political structures as well as new actor constellations that come along with the growing datafication and digitization of education and society.
Transformation of federal education governance, the role of data infrastructures as well as new intermediary actors
In the context of Heisenberg funding, we investigate the role that federally decentralized structures play in shaping or limiting educational digitization. A growing influence of national education authorities (e.g. digital pact in Germany) and centralized databases can be observed across federal states worldwide, which increasingly put under pressure subnational policy authority. In addition, processes of standardization, centralization and infrastructuralization are increasingly being driven by intermediary actors who operate between education policy, research, business and school practice and, thus, outside the traditional education policy arenas. For example, we co-edited a special issue on intermediaries in 2024. We also conducted a study on Estonia, which is commonly considered a global pioneer of digitization, and examined here the complex interplay between intermediary policy actors and data infrastructures.
The dissertation by Lucas Joecks, “EdTech Consulting: Actor Constellations and Governance Logics of Consulting on Digital Transformation in the School System” (doi.org/10.24405/22302), completed with the support of a doctoral scholarship from the Hans Böckler Foundation, is equally situated within this context. More specifically, his work focused on how EdTech consultants, a new group of actors that emerged particularly in the context of the Digital Pact and the COVID-19 pandemic, can be conceptually framed, and which characteristics (e.g., rationales for action, governance effects, etc.) of these actors can be empirically identified.
Analysis of the EdTech sector
Through an extensive team ethnography, and together with colleagues from KU Leuven, we researched the EdTech startup sector. Specifically, the aim of this research was to systematize and empirically disentangle the diverse and also contradictory logics of the EdTech startup sector. To this end, the research group analyzed a multi-day European event that was specifically adressing startups in the education sector. The study generated highly relevant results, which can be read here. In addition to the content-related results, we also developed and prepared the method of hybrid team ethnography in the context of the study – in our case, researching the event with eight people and closely interlinking analog and digital research modes.
Analysis of learning technologies
With growing digitization, governing education through technology is increasingly penetrating educational institutions and hereby moves increasingly „closer“ to students and teachers (e.g. adaptive technologies, measurement of biosensorical data, artificial intelligence). At the same time, these technologies are never neutral; rather, their design always incorporates certain ideas and values (e.g. what is “successful” education, what is “good” learning, how users should ideally navigate the platform, etc.), which are then conveyed to teachers and students via user interfaces. In various smaller studies, we are researching such technologies with regard to their pedagogical inscriptions and governance effects, including the reading software Antolin, the school platform itslearning, or fobizz.
The critical examination of learning tools also plays a central role in our transfer initiative UNBLACK THE BOX as well as in the SMASCH project.
Investigating the new role of Edtech Testbeds
Across the globe, so-called EdTech testbeds have been emerging as new settings for testing and (re)designing educational technologies, aiming at more holistic impact assessments and a stronger inclusion of scientists and practitioners in technology development. Often driven by international networks, testbeds represent a significant yet so far under-researched phenomenon at the intersection of EdTech governance, policy and practice. Against this backdrop, our DFG/SNF-funded project MEET explores the shaping of new governance structures and actor constellations around EdTech testbeds, as well as the testbeds’ roles within discourses and practices on EdTech “impact”. We investigate the emergence of testbed collaborations between (EdTech) companies, educational practice and research, and draw on ethnographic methods, combining network, document and platform analysis with interviews and observations in different countries.
Letzte Änderung: 7. March 2026