Who Teaches Digital Citizenship? Private Actors, Educational Resources and Individualising Discourses

Over the last few decades, private organisations involved in the development of educational resources for digital citizenship have proliferated: from Google to Disney, from MediaSmarts to Common Sense. There has been, however, little interrogation (and therefore, investigation) of the underlying discourses of digital citizenship education that these organisations seek to transmit. In this article, we analyse the discourses of digital citizenship education from teaching resources developed by multiple global actors, including Big Tech, philanthropies, international organisations and professional’ associations. The analysis draws on our previous analytical framework of digital citizenship education that distinguishes between safeguarding, equipping, empowering and resisting educational approaches. The study shows the dominance of equipping approaches that emphasise the role of individual behaviour in the development of safer and more democratic online spaces and have little discussion or criticality with the role of governments and Big Tech in the promotion of such spaces. This approach is partially explained by the key role played by Big Tech in the funding and/or design of these resources. The article concludes with a call for critical teachers and educational scholars to challenge these discourses and to take inspiration from the few resources found that embrace empowering and resisting approaches.