The governance of teachers’ time allocation and data usage through a learning management system: a biopolitical perspective

This paper examines the intricate relationship between state ambitions and institutional disciplining in the context of managers and teachers’ time allocation and data usage. Using a specific learning management system (LMS) as a case study in Danish public elementary schools and drawing on Foucault’s theory, we examine how governance through the LMS, constituted as disciplinary power and surveillance techniques, shapes time allocation and data usage in schools. Our study is based on an analysis of policy documents and qualitative interviews, identifying discourses about educational ambitions and intentions with the LMS. Our analysis has three perspectives. First, we argue that the Danish state’s educational ambitions are characterized as biopolitics grounded in economic imperatives and the need for a well-educated population. Second, we argue that the enactment of a mandatory LMS in schools manifests as governance to secure state ambitions. Finally, we argue that the disciplinary power and surveillance techniques embedded in the design of the LMS shape teachers’ time allocation and data usage in accordance with state ambitions. Thus, our analysis contributes a theoretical perspective to develop a critical understanding of how state ambitions for governance through digital tools shape possibilities for practice among actors within the educational field.