Chairs: Cristina Alarcón López (University of Vienna, Austria) & Christian Ydesen (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Governing learning today involves a dense ecology of actors—from international organizations and national ministries to tech and testing companies, philanthropic foundations, and data infrastructures. These actors shape learning through metrics, tests, digital platforms, crisis narratives, anticipatory governance and reform agendas, often underpinned by visions of efficiency, competitiveness, and progress. Yet such forms of governance raise critical questions about the very purposes, values, and legitimacy of education in a fragmented, asymmetric and contested world. This working group invites contributions that explore how learning is steered across levels and contexts, and how alternative imaginaries might reconfigure governance for more inclusive and sustainable futures.
We welcome papers that address questions such as:
- Taking in consideration the issue of power, resilience and resistance, how is learning governed across local, national, and global arenas—and by whom?
- What roles do digital technologies, data, and indicators play in shaping education policy and practice?
- How do crisis narratives function as devices of educational governance and to what extent are they linked to anticipatory future constructions?
- What historical continuities and ruptures mark the governance of learning?
- How do new actors (e.g. EdTech firms, IOs, brokers) redefine who governs and what is governed?
- What alternative governance imaginaries exist beyond technocratic or managerialist logics?
- What kind of subjectivities are shaped by educational governance actors?