Conference Program

The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed an unprecedented and rapid expansion of digital platforms within global education systems. This transition often occurred without sufficient critical reflection on its structural implications for pedagogical processes, school data sovereignty, or teacher labor conditions (Díez Gutiérrez, 2021). The Spanish educational landscape reflects this trend; as noted by Rivera et al. (2023), 79.7% of Spanish institutions rely on digital infrastructures provided by Big Tech conglomerates, such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, through institutional agreements with regional governments. This systemic dependency has intensified debates surrounding technological sovereignty, datafication, and the reconfiguration of the teaching profession within platform-mediated environments.

Post-emergency, these digital tools and their associated practices have become deeply embedded in the institutional fabric of schools. This new normalcy has introduced emerging professional demands, including: (1) the implementation of techno-pedagogical methodologies; (2) the continuous production of digital content; and (3) the oversight of students’ digital wellbeing and the prevention of problematic technology use (Blanco Navarro et al., 2025).

Transcending purely regulatory or macro-structural analyses, this study explores the opportunities, constraints, and emerging tensions of school digitalization from the subjective perspective of teachers. Understanding these perceptions is vital for designing educational policies and teacher training programs capable of fostering a reflexive and critical response to the challenges of platformization.

Methodologically, this research draws on eleven focus groups conducted with primary school teachers across various Spanish regions. This work is part of the second phase of the R&D project Digital platforms and datafication in Spanish primary education: protecting children in a context of educational digitalization (DigiProtEd), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PID2022-137033NA-I00).

Utilizing an inductive qualitative analysis, the study systematizes how pedagogical, managerial, and communicative uses of platforms intersect with daily teaching practice. Preliminary findings suggest a dual reality; while platforms enhance communicative immediacy and administrative efficiency, they simultaneously contribute to the "intensification" of teaching labor. This is evidenced by an expansion of working hours, increased bureaucratic burdens, and the expectation of permanent availability, alongside new responsibilities in data curation and digital guardianship.