Assembling desire. Analyzing the rollout of self-tracking devices in early childhood education

Abstract

This paper examines the desiring-assemblages around an edtech device used in early childhood education (ECE). Using desire as an entry point, the paper examines how a Finnish edtech company gains access to municipal ECE with an activity-tracking device aimed at children. Drawing on interviews with company and administration employees, and ECE staff, the study details how a desire for increased physical education is produced and mobilized in order to bring together a network of actors, resulting in the rollout of the devices into educational use. The paper uses assemblage theory to nuance and complicate the linear story of a scientifically proven need leading to a policy program and finally to the rollout of an edtech device as a solution. Through an investigation into the use and production of desires, the paper discusses unequal power dynamics in public-private partnerships built around edtech and the ways in which the enthusiasm of the users is directed into edtech products.