Educational legitimacy in the platform economy: the Google Teacher Approved program

A few years ago, Google introduced the Google Teacher Approved program to evaluate apps for children under 13 on the Google Play Store. Parental anxieties around educational futures have made the online marketplaces a welcome outlet for parents looking for good quality apps for their children.

In this paper Dr Chris Zomer (Deakin University) and Dr Niels Kerssens (Utrecht University) use the concept of educational legitimation to analyse how Google creates educational value for these applications. They conducted a walkthrough of both the Google Teacher Approved course for developers and the Kids’ section in the Google Play Store. They also interviewed five developers from four different countries who have applications for children under 13 on the Google Play Store.

They argue that Google uses ambiguity by design to invoke a sense of educational relevance without needing to make any explicit claims of educational effectiveness. In the Google Teacher Approved program teachers are both appropriated as a signifier of trust and commodified as developers seek ways to capitalise on the aura of quality invoked by having a Teacher Approved badge.

They also argue that the Teacher Approved badge comes to stand for a stamp of approval within the industry, even though the aim of the program is not to assess educational quality, but rather to create educational quality, using discursive means. The Google Teacher Approved program is principally a form of self-regulation of controversial industry practices, such as the use of ads and in-app purchases. The trustworthiness invoked by teachers is then used to continue these practices in more ‘regulated’ ways, stymying any critique.

Speaker

Dr Chris Zomer

Dr Chris Zomer is a research fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child at Deakin University. Chris’s work critically examines how educational technology is reshaping educational practices, values, and beliefs. He has published on a variety of topics, including the use of gamification in learning apps, the datafication of student engagement and the political economy of children’s apps on online marketplaces.

Cost

Free.

When

3.30 pm—4.30 pm Tuesday 12 August 2025.

Where

Deakin Downtown, Level 12 Tower 2 Collins Square, 727 Collins Street, Docklands and online via Zoom.