Educational Legitimacy in the Platform Economy: The Case of The Google Teacher Approved Program

Abstract

Parental anxieties around educational futures have made the online marketplaces a welcome outlet for parents looking for quality educational apps for their children. In 2020Google introduced the Google Teacher Approved(GTA)program to evaluate apps for children under 13 on Google Play.In this paper we use the concept of legitimation to analyse how Google createseducational legitimacy for these applications.We conducteda walkthrough ofboththeGTAcourse for developerson the Google Play Academyand the Kids’ section on Google Play. We also interviewed staff from five different companiesthat develop apps for children under 13. We argue that the aim of the GTA program is not to assess educational quality, but rather to createeducational legitimacy. Google uses ambiguity by design to invoke a sense of educational relevance without needing to make any explicit claimsabout the pedagogical value of apps. In the GTAprogram teachersbecome ‘authoritative capital’as they are both appropriated as a signifier of trust and commodified as developers seek ways to capitalise on the aura of quality invoked by a Teacher Approved badge. We foundthat the legitimacy of the GTAprogram was contestedwithin the industryon both procedural and consequential grounds.The GTAprogram isprincipallya form of self-regulationof controversial monetisation practices, such as the use of adsand in-app purchases. The trustworthiness invoked byteachers is then used to continue these practices in more ‘regulated’ ways, stymying any critiqueunder the guise of teacher approval.