Árvore platform reading trails: teacher autonomy or automated data analysis?

Abstract

This article aimed to problematize the exercise of teacher autonomy in the face of automated data analysis, a characteristic of educational platformization, considering the Reading Trails produced by the digital reading platform Árvore. The theoretical anchors turn to post-structuralist approaches, falling within the field of Cultural Studies in Education, taking as a theoretical-methodological tool the concept of platformization in Van Dijck, Poell and De Waal (2018) and Van Dijck (2022). To this end, we consider four Reading Trails, with productions based on the book A vida intima de Laura, by Clarice Lispector, curated by Árvore, and a Didactic Sequence, prepared by the authors, based on the book Clarice Lispector for girls and boys, from the AntiPrincesas Collection, authored by Nadia Fink. The results indicate the need for a closer look at offers of “reading solutions” considered to be intelligent, considering that Reading Trails reduce the educational process to learning content in immediate and short-term processes, which exclude proactivity of participating teachers and students. Furthermore, the Trails are the result of a conception in which learning can be monitored, managed and controlled, based on inferences and predictions, through complex analysis of massive data, seeking to offer customized solutions to students, thus emptying teaching practice instead of opening space for teacher intervention.