Edtech Companies and the Digitalization of Education in Chile. the Growth and Consolidation of Technosolucionism in Global South.

In Global South, recent research shows that transnational technology corporations have increased their engagement in educational development following variegated institutional logics and rationales (Patil, 2023), with special emphasis to commercial digital platforms provided by Big Tech companies -the so-called GAMAMs- (Williamson and Hogan, 2020). In contrast, to date, the role of national edtech companies in public policies and educational policies has been little studied.

This article analyses the network of actors involved in the contemporary digitalization of the Chilean school system and the role of private EdTech corporations in this ecosystem. Using a framework based on new modes of education governance and contributions from the cultural political economy, three sources were triangulated: i) 22 semi structured interviews with key actors and policymakers, ii) a database of startups in the EdTech sector in Chile and iii) a systematization of the main digital education policies implemented in the country.

The findings reveal a poorly coordinated network of actors, which has allowed the inorganic and heterogeneous growth of EdTech corporations, whose role encompasses not only the production of technology but also its articulation and management. Secondly, the results show that edtech companies (along with BigTech) promote educational techno-solutionism, promoting images that directly connect students with technology and diminishing the role of schools in education. Finally, EdTech companies, although with national roots, seek to expand their models to other countries in the Global South, through the idea of "local solutions, global problems." To this form, EdTech companies play a central role not only as producers of technology, but also as articulators and administrators, illustrating a displacement of the State from some of its historic functions.