Education & New Technologies in China: The Politics of Visions & Strategies

In the Western hemisphere, the opposition of surveillance versus privacy appears to be common sense: any technology use with the potential risk of infringing upon personal integrity and privacy is in return expected to lead to substantial improvements in security in order to constitute a legitimate course of action. In China, the main problem of inhibiting the free flow of information is rarely seen in the potential violation of privacy rights but in the disadvantages that could emerge for China's innovative capacity.

These two different approaches towards digital control and surveillance are reflected in a number of fields, including education. Outside China, it is particularly the concept of critical digital literacy that has been focusing on how each individual can be equipped with the necessary tools to critically handle the infringing effects of digital technologies. In China, the relationship between education and technology is deeply intertwined with the nation-state project: new technologies are supposed to support the country's modernization, which in turn is considered of utmost importance for the economic well-being and sovereignty of the nation.
This paper investigates how the interaction between education and new technologies is framed in Chinese society, by focusing on the political visions and strategies that underlie potential uses of communication and information technologies (ICT) for educational and pedagogical purposes. It will be analyzed how official visions as articulated in strategy papers and guidelines portray the interrelationship of education and digital technologies, to then investigate how these items have been utilized by educators.