Sigrid HartongJamie Manolev

The construction of (good) parents (as professionals) in/through learning platforms

Shortlink: https://www.waxmann.com/artikelART105230
.doi: https://doi.org/10.31244/tc.2023.01.05

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Abstract

The increasing platformization of contemporary education is reshaping schooling in a multitude of ways, including the relationship parents have with their children’s education. While a growing number of research is revealing the influential impacts platforms have on various educational professions, few scholars have so far looked at how parents are designed, made visible and normatively regulated (e.g., as being/becoming professional) in/through specific platforms, also because associating parents with educational professionality seems much less self-evident than for groups such as teachers or principals. As we argue in this contribution, drawing on ongoing discussions from the field of parenthood, studies offers fruitful inspiration to not only better understand what parental (educational) professionalization means, but equally how it can be brought together with research on parental platformization. Building on that literature framework, we then illuminate what we see when employing such an approach empirically, using two distinct learning platforms as case studies – ClassDojo, a classroom and behavior management platform used mainly in anglophone countries, and Antolin, a reading enhancement platform used in German schools. Drawing on the initial findings from both case studies, we conclude with a suggested research agenda around ‘platformized parents’ and offer a framework of questions to guide its advancement.

APA citation
Hartong, S. & Manolev J. (2023). The construction of (good) parents (as professionals) in/through learning platforms. Tertium Comparationis, 29(1), 93-116. https://doi.org/10.31244/tc.2023.01.05