A educação na Bolsa: as dimensões da privatização da educação pública por plataformas digitais

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze how digital platforms mediate the privatization process of public education in municipal schools in Bahia, Brazil. Using historicaldialectical materialism as methodology, the investigation employed semistructured interviews and literature review as data collection strategies. The theoretical Framework was based on authors such as Adrião (2018), Zuboff (2020), Srnicek (2017), and Ball (2018), who problematize the dynamics of control, surveillance, and technological dependency in the educational field. As results, the research revealed two central dimensions: the Architecture and Surveillance Dimension and the Dimension of Teaching Work Precarization. In the first dimension, it was identified how digital platforms are strategically designed with "friendly" and "intuitive" interfaces, facilitating their rapid adoption in schools. However, this apparent benefit masks a process of technological dependence on large companies. The platforms establish a permanent cycle of data collection from students, teachers, and administrators, creating sophisticated mechanisms for monitoring and controlling educational infrastructure. The Dimension of Teaching Work Precarization revealed significant impacts on pedagogical practices. Contrary to the promise of reducing workload, digital platforms intensify teacher overload, imposing new methodologies and a constant monitoring system. The standardization of activities, rigidly aligned with the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), disregards teachers' prior knowledge and restricts their professional autonomy and hinders the discussion of other possibilities for digital platforms and systems, expanding the dominance of Big Tech platforms, which present themselves as a solution to problems in education, especially in times of crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic. Thus, digital platforms, although presented as tools for educational modernization, deepen the market logic in public education, and their apparent ease of use hides a complex system of control and surveillance that compromises the public character of education, institutional autonomy, and users' right to privacy. Therefore, the privatization of education through digital platforms represents a symptom of the growing commodification of Brazilian public education, highlighting tensions between technology, educational management, and teaching work.