Assembling Digital Platforms in Education Policy. A Comparative Analysis of ‘Scuola in Chiaro' and ‘Eduscopio'

The article deals with the digital governance (DG) of education. In particular, it focuses on the power digital platforms perform in the processes of social construction of reality, i.e. as devices that contribute to producing what they would like (and claim) to portray (Maguire et al. 2015). Our research strategy consists of an integrated approach intertwining the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and critical studies on education. Briefly, we engage in an attempt of ‘critical reading' of digital platforms. In particular, we try to make a critical sociology of DG, by assuming: on the one hand, the challenge that digital space represents in terms of topological dimension of school (Landri, 2018); on the other hand, the role digital formations play as project of reculturing of education field (Grimaldi and Serpieri 2012), that works by translating it in the space of commensuration (Lawn and Grek 2012). To this aim, we propose a comparative analysis of two influential digital platforms in Italy: ‘Scuola in Chiaro’ (SiC), and ‘Eduscopio’. The study shows how the digital platforms develop in trans-societal structures, i.e. the assemblage of people, technologies, circuits of expertise and policies emerging through the collaborations between public offices, private companies, and schools to discuss the potential as well as the limitations of the investigation in understanding the power of the digital platforms in shaping education policy