Neil Selwyn has a new article published in the Journal of Education Policy with colleagues from the University of Gothenburg. The article – titled “Selling tech to teachers: education trade shows as policy events” – focuses on the role of large trade shows in the marketing of technology to schools and teachers. In particular, it explores the role of trade shows as sites of policy work – i.e. how these events function as sites of policy interpretation and the ‘sharing’ (or more accurately ‘selling’) of global ideas and imperatives to local schools and teachers. The paper details the role of trade shows in consolidating policy networks, subsuming public education interests into corporate concerns, and differentiating teacher subjectivities and encouraging teacher entrepreneurship. The paper problematizes the ways in which teacher agency is shaped and controlled by the discursive, material and affective dimensions of such events.
