Digital infrastructures increasingly shape education policy, teaching and learning across levels of education. These infrastructures are not merely technical systems; they are deeply political and contested, shaping what counts as valid and worthy teaching content, learning outcomes, pedagogical approaches or policy evidence. They involve human actors like policymakers and educators, non-human elements such as software, databases, and algorithms, regulatory frameworks, financial risks and ambitions, future imaginaries, and many more.
The presentations by international guest speakers Sigrid Hartong, Mathias Decuypere and Jitka Wirthová will focus on the questions of what current digital infrastructures of education entail, how they could be studied, and what questions and approaches they raise for future research.
Seminar program:
12.15 Introduction by Nelli Piattoeva
12.20 Sigrid Hartong & Mathias Decuypere
Digital infrastructures in/for critical education research: exploring hybrid (team) ethnography
12.50 Jitka Wirthová
From hand-made to human-done: how human agency matters in digital infrastructures and how sociology can ask about it
13.20–13.45 Q&A and Discussion
TRANSIT Guest Speakers
Sigrid Hartong is a Professor for Transformation of Governance in Education and Society at the Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Mathias Decuypere is a Professor of School Development and Governance at the Zurich University of Teacher Education
Jitka Wirthová is an Assistant Professor at the Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences
Summary:
What: Digital infrastructures in education seminar
When: Wednesday 4 February, 12.15–13.45 EET
Onsite: Lyhty, Tampere University Main Building
Online: please email TRANSIT coordinator Iida Kiesi (iida.kiesi(at)tuni.fi) for online participation link.