CHAPTER 2: The Role of Big Data and “Personalized Learning” in the Privatization of Public Education

The application of “big data” through learning analytics to create “personalized learning” is underway in K–12 education. This chapter offers a content analysis of nine documents that reveal how big data is contributing to the privatization of public education. The analysis shows that that “personalized learning” frameworks and technologies minimize the role of the teacher; impose privatized forms of decision-making; narrowly define the purpose of education as preparing students for the twenty-first century workforce; and disregard student privacy.