Between metrics and platforms

intersections and implications of digital culture in teachers’ work

Resumo

This article presents the partial results of an ongoing doctoral research project in the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Mato Grosso, linked to the research line Teacher Education, Curriculum, Technologies and Educational Practices and the research project Digital Technologies, Educational Processes and Social Practices: mixtures, hybridizations and the becoming of education in digital culture. The guiding question of this investigation is how the platformization of education has impacted teachers’ work in Basic Education. The study analyzes the relationship between platformization and teachers’ work at this level of education. It is a qualitative research project with a theoretical-methodological approach structured in two dimensions: the first consisted of building a theoretical corpus grounded in a systematic review conducted using the PRISMA method; the second, of an exploratory-descriptive nature, articulated these data with the results of a previously defended master’s research project. Through content analysis, four units of meaning were identified to organize the data: the redefinition of teachers’ work; the evaluation of teachers’ work as a control device; platformization and digital technologies in teachers’ work; and subjectivity and suffering in teachers’ work. The results indicate that teachers’ work in Basic Education, through the process of platformization, has become increasingly oriented by standardized metrics, reducing its relational and formative complexity. Moreover, they point to the implications of platformization and digital technologies for the intensification of work and the increased performative pressure on teachers, configuring new challenges for contemporary teaching.