Algorithmic systems claim education and the (re)production of education

As education grows its dependency on digital technologies, their business owners have the capacity to claim control over not only the distribution of knowledge but also over individuals with regards to their future prospects and life chances. Algorithmic systems are increasingly used to infer, predict, and steer the education experience of children. Such systems are data-intensive, often proprietary in nature, and near impossible for their end-users to understand how they work or even resist. These systems therefore build their privilege in education to acquire pedagogic power and authority over the educational process and over one’s future life chances. But concerns grow as to whom this authority benefits the most and how to prevent their possible negative impact. For that, this chapter calls for more and systematic postdigital research to identify the needs of governance, scrutiny, and oversight of these advancing data-intensive systems and their owners to ensure that they are held accountable in their influence and impact on education.