Imagining personalisation: EdTech and the shift towards neuroliberal governance

Abstract

This paper examines how educational technology (EdTech) companies construct and promote the concept of personalisation, arguing personalisation functions less as a pedagogical innovation and more as neuroliberal governance. Drawing on a sociotechnical imaginaries approach, the paper analyses promotional materials from EDUtech Australia 2024 to explore how personalisation is framed, legitimised, and operationalised in commercial discourse. While personalisation is often associated with learner autonomy and educational equity, this analysis reveals its growing alignment with institutional efficiency, behavioural tracking and optimisation. The paper identifies five dominant imaginaries, reflecting a neuroliberal logic that privileges internalise self-governance over pedagogical depth. These imaginaries produce what we term a ‘hallucination of autonomy’: a paradoxical experience and understanding of autonomy, where users believe they are actively shaping teaching, learning and management, despite their choices appearing to be systematically pre-configured by the platforms and built into everyday educational practices. The paper concludes by highlighting the risks of neuroliberal personalisation and calls for greater scrutiny of how personalised EdTech shape the future of educational governance.