Critical studies of education and technology: an invitation to connect - Problematising education and digital technology

You are invited to join us for a Swiss academic meeting on the theme’ Problematising education and digital technology’. This event is organised as part of a series of events around the world initiated by Neil Selwyn from Monash University (link: https://criticaledtech.com/2024/07/26/cset-2025-critical-studies-of-education-and-technology-an-invitation-to-connect/) . The aim is for people to get together in ways that do not involve excessive cost, unnecessary travel and unsociable timings.

These meetings will all be based around four common themes, addressed in the form of the following questions:

1.  What are the pressing issues, concerns, tensions and problems that surround EdTech in our locality? What questions do we need to ask, and what approaches will help us research these questions?
2.  What social harms are we seeing associated with digital technology and education in our locality?
3.  What does the political economy of EdTech look like in our region? What do local EdTech markets look like? How are global Big Tech corporations manifest in local education systems? What does EdTech policy look like, and which actors are driving policymaking? What do we find if we ‘follow the money’?
4.  What grounds for hope are there? Can we point to local instances of digital technology leading to genuine social benefits and empowerment? What local push-back and resistance against egregious forms of EdTech is evident? What alternate imaginaries are being circulated about education and digital futures?

As local coordinators, our aim is to bring together people engaged or interested in critical studies of education and technology across Switzerland to start building a network. At the global level, the aim is to establish a loose network of groups that can begin to make lasting connections and develop a sense of intellectual community.

When: Thursday, February 20th, 2025, from 9:30 to 12:00, followed by a networking lunch

Where: at UniDistance Suisse campus in Brig and online

Who: researchers from universities across Switzerland, independent/non-affiliated scholars, PhD candidates, and people engaged with the questions of education and technology.

What: the aim is to learn about who is doing what around critical studies in education and technology in Switzerland. You can give a short presentation (5-10 minutes) of the work you have been doing in this area or a more in-depth presentation (15-20 minutes) on a specific research project. Of course, you are also welcome to take part in the event without presenting.

Following the presentations, we will discuss the four common themes to the series of events.

The Swiss organising committee and participants will produce a summary around the four common headline questions. These summaries will be collated at the global level, and an open-access report will be produced from this material. The global committee will organise a face-to-face event sometime in June 2025 (hopefully in Oxford or London, UK) to bring together representatives from as many of these local groups as possible.