RESUMO
The Spanish educational system has traditionally been characterized by the presence of public-private partnerships in the education provision. However, in the expansive context of the Global Education Industry (GEI), emerging actors are now developing new influence strategies. This paper analyses the free educational programs offered through the foundations of four enterprises characterized by being located in Spain and having a business sector different from education. The selection of the programs seeks to identify in the context of the Spanish school system the presence and the influence actions of businesses actors which don't have an educational profile but that target their products to that sector, mainly teachers. The analysis of the educational products has been carried out through the three moments identified by Jessop within the Cultural Political Economy approach: variation, selection and retention. Results show the legitimation of the participation of private actors into the educational systems as the basis on which the programs operate, reflected on the absence of justificatory discourses;the focus of the educational products on school practices, specifically on curriculum elements (competencies, contents, teaching methodologies) and teachers training;and the use of economic rewards and technological compensations, courses and standardized teaching materials as main influence actions. As a whole, these actions seek to impact the educational system by placing teachers as recipients of their interventions, but at the same time they develop hybridization strategies through collaboration with public institutions. With their speeches and actions, companies build a system of market educational knowledge that emphasizes the utilitarian value of the education system and that has public institutions as collaboratorsAlternate abstract:El sistema educativo español se ha caracterizado históricamente por la colaboración entre iniciativas privadas y públicas en la provisión de educación. Sin embargo, en el contexto expansivo de la Industria Educativa Global (IEG) numerosos y diversos actores emergen con nuevas estrategias de influencia. En este artículo abordamos el estudio de los programas educativos ofrecidos de manera gratuita por las fundaciones de cuatro empresas (Samsung, Endesa, Mapfre, Repsol) que se caracterizan por tener su base en España y por no operar en el sector educativo como área de negocio. La selección de estos programas responde al objetivo de identificar en el contexto del sistema educativo español la presencia y las acciones de influencia de agentes empresariales que no tienen un perfil educativo, pero que dirigen sus productos a actores de dicho sector, especialmente al profesorado. El análisis de los productos educativos se ha desarrollado empleando los tres momentos identificados por Jessop desde el enfoque de la Economía Política Cultural: variación, selección y retención. Los resultados muestran la legitimación de la participación de agentes privados en el sistema educativo sobre la que se asientan los programas que se refleja en la ausencia de discursos justificativos de los programas;el foco de las propuestas formativas en las prácticas escolares, concretamente en elementos curriculares (competencias, contenidos, metodologías didácticas) y la formación de profesorado;y el empleo de premios económicos y compensaciones de carácter tecnológico, cursos y materiales didácticos estandarizados como principales acciones de influencia. En conjunto estas acciones buscan impactar en el sistema educativo situando al profesorado como destinatario de sus intervenciones. Las empresas construyen con sus discursos y acciones un régimen de conocimiento educativo de mercado que enfatiza el valor utilitario del sistema educativo y que tiene a las instituciones públicas como colaboradoras.
RESUMO
This paper is the reflection of the proceedings of a live colloquium held by seven educational researchers in Madrid in August 2021. Point of departure of this colloquium was a shared concern for the ascendance of online teaching as the privileged mode of teaching in higher education. This concern, which had been influenced significantly by our various experiences during the Covid-19 crisis, was recently articulated in an outspokenly affirmative and positive manner by a group of digital education scholars in The Manifesto for Teaching Online (Bayne et al. 2020).