Education under algorithmic control: platformization, datafication, and school processes

Abstract

This article analyzes the expansion of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in municipal education in Rio Grande do Sul, with emphasis on Google for Education initiatives, problematizing the processes of platformization and datafication within school systems. The study stems from the project “Mapeamento das Parcerias Público-Privadas em Educação”, conducted between 2019 and 2024 by different academic groups. Methodologically, the research combined questionnaires sent to associations and municipal education departments, manual data collection from institutional websites, social networks, and news reports, as well as the analysis of bids and contracts available on the LicitaCon Cidadão transparency portal. The resulting corpus gathered information from 497 municipalities, totaling 1,168 records, 920 of which confirmed the existence of PPPs. From this set, partnerships involving Google were selected for analysis, amounting to fifteen initiatives in thirteen municipalities, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, when the adoption of digital platforms as pedagogical tools intensified. The results show that such initiatives, although justified under the discourse of innovation and modernization, reveal weaknesses in terms of transparency and official registration, since a significant portion of the actions was not reported in official control systems. It is concluded that the insertion of transnational corporations in public education, beyond straining pedagogical autonomy and democratic management, embeds schools in market logics that prioritize private interests. The study highlights the need to strengthen academic and social scrutiny of these partnerships, seeking alternatives that safeguard the public character of education.