Rural education imaginaries in digital education policy: an analysis of CONPES 3988 in Colombia

Abstract

This paper explores the digital imaginaries presented in the educational governance and policy landscape of Colombia through the lens of rurality. It interrogates one policy instrument, namely CONPES 3988, which establishes the importance of digital technologies in national-level educational policies and subsequent strategies. CONPES 3988 draws a strong focus on educational ‘innovation’, which is explicitly conceptualised through digital technology, understood as the transformation of traditional educational practices through educational technologies to improve educational quality. CONPES 3988 establishes the actions needed to realise a process of educational innovation through educational technologies and has four pillars: to increase access to digital technologies for the creation of innovative learning spaces, to improve Internet connectivity of official educational institutions, to promote the appropriation of digital technologies in the educational community, and to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of the use, access and impact of digital technologies in education. CONPES 3988 draws a strong focus on educational ‘innovation’, which is explicitly conceptualised through digital technology, understood as the transformation of traditional educational practices through educational technologies to improve educational quality. CONPES 3988 captures and surfaces digital imaginaries that speak to rural education, particularly in how it is framed and performed and how digital technology use is explicitly tied to market discourses of quality, sustainability, transformation, and breaks from tradition. Rural education in Colombia, and indeed rurality itself and its attendant plurality, are potentially disadvantaged in this framing as they become transactional actors in a larger educational system framed increasingly in digital technologies emerging from the urban centres of the Colombian government. Such an analysis provides insights that extend well beyond Colombia, particularly in noting how rurality and rural education are reframed when there is policy and governance emphasis on digital technology use in education.