A Case Study of Cooperation between Teachers and EdTech Companies: LeWebPédagogique

Abstract

This article aims at exploring the strategies developed by LeWebPédagogique, an actor from the educational technology sector, when describing itself as a “community of teachers”. Owing to data collected during a participant observation and semi-structured interviews led with members of the firm, we show that this expression lies at the heart of LeWebPédagogique’s marketing strategy and economical model. It also epitomizes its capacity to address teachers and to mobilize them to produce school-proof content displayed on various platforms, playing on the appeal that the “author” status exerts on teachers.

On the other hand, we try to expose the motivations of teachers who chose to collaborate with LeWebPédagogique while developing “proto-communities” (Baron & Zablot, 2017). Could teachers build specific “strategies” (de Certeau, 1980) in order to stage themselves as innovative or “teaching stars”? Owing to the analysis of semi-structured interviews led with teachers occupying the roles of beta-testers, content producers or target audience, we also tried to understand if these collaborations could throw light upon a deprofessionalization feeling in an institutional context that would lead teachers to work with a private actor.