WHO GOVERNS THE CLASSROOM? PEDAGOGICAL SOVEREIGNTY AT RISK: BIG TECH AND EDTECH INFRASTRUCTURING IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

Abstract

The integration of artificial intelligence and corporate digital platforms into public education reconfigures school governance. In this scenario, this theoretical essay asserts that this movement cannot be understood merely as innocent technical modernization. Thus, this article investigates the following research problem: in what ways does the infrastructure built by Big Techs and EdTechs jeopardize pedagogical sovereignty and precarious teacher labor? The main objective is to analyze the boundaries between digital innovation and proletarianization resulting from datafication. At the level of teaching labor, a process of cognitive proletarianization becomes evident: teachers are converted into "unpaid data feeders," whose intellectual labor and daily planning serve to feed and train private algorithms without oversight or intervention from the public sector. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative, exploratory approach with a critical-interpretative orientation, structured as an essay articulating the critical theory of technology, the sociology of education, and the contemporary debate on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd). Furthermore, it addresses how the adoption of predictive systems based on learning analytics deepens educational inequalities by inheriting historical asymmetries. This essay concludes that defending public schooling requires an urgent reorientation of educational policies regarding the incorporation of artificial intelligence to ensure digital sovereignty, democratic regulation, and critical AI literacy.