When public policy ‘fails’ and venture capital ‘saves’ education: Edtech investors as economic and political actors

Journal article

Abstract:: Educational technology (Edtech) investors have become increasingly influential in education; however, they remain under-researched. We address this deficit and introduce the grammar and landscape of Edtech investment into education research. We empirically examine venture capital Edtech investors and argue that they are economic and political actors. Investors construct the Edtech industry through their investment and advancing particular imaginaries. They legitimate their authority in education through narratives of expertise and measures of social impact. They consolidate the Edtech industry by constructing social networks to perform the political work of futuring. The analysis provides original insights into the power of Edtech investors in education and proposes a research agenda examining new relations between the education, technology, and finance industries.

Files:: Komljenovic_et_al_2023_When_public_policy.pdf

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Language:: English
Keywords:: education technology

investor

venture capital

investment

futures
Pubs id:: 1557248
Local pid:: pubs:1557248
Deposit date:: 2023-11-03

Copyright holder:: Komljenovic et al.
Rights statement:: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

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