INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STRATEGY AND GOVERNANCE IN EDUCATION
Research Article
Jun 29, 2026 4 2

The Geography of Digital Sovereignty in Education: Data Infrastructure and Platform Dependence across 29 Education Jurisdictions

Abdulhalik PINAR 1 *
1 Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences* Corresponding Author
International Journal of Strategy and Governance in Education, 1(1), June 2026, 17-35
Publication date: Jun 29, 2026
Full Text (PDF)

ABSTRACT

Over the last two decades, education systems have become increasingly digital. This digitalization goes beyond classroom teaching processes; it also raises a governance issue concerning where educational data is collected, who provides the digital infrastructure, and at what level decision-making authority is exercised. Based on the OECD's report comparing 29 education jurisdictions, our study classifies these jurisdictions along four dimensions: the level of centralization of decision-making authority, public control over educational data, whether the digital infrastructure is provided by the public sector or through private platforms, and the binding nature of data protection rules. In our study, we transformed these four dimensions into a digital sovereignty score and evaluated the jurisdictions under four governance typologies. Our findings reveal that digital governance in education is not geographically uniform. In systems with a strong tradition of centralized governance, public control over data and infrastructure is more pronounced, while in systems with high levels of school autonomy, dependence on private providers increases. This study examines this dependence within the framework of data colonialism, arguing that the transfer of educational data to private platforms creates a new problem of digital sovereignty.

KEYWORDS

digital education governance data colonialism data governance platform dependence digital sovereignty education policy digital transformation EdTech governance

CITATION (APA)

PINAR, A. (2026). The Geography of Digital Sovereignty in Education: Data Infrastructure and Platform Dependence across 29 Education Jurisdictions. International Journal of Strategy and Governance in Education, 1(1), 17-35.
Harvard
PINAR, A. (2026). The Geography of Digital Sovereignty in Education: Data Infrastructure and Platform Dependence across 29 Education Jurisdictions. International Journal of Strategy and Governance in Education, 1(1), pp. 17-35.
Vancouver
PINAR A. The Geography of Digital Sovereignty in Education: Data Infrastructure and Platform Dependence across 29 Education Jurisdictions. International Journal of Strategy and Governance in Education. 2026;1(1):17-35.
AMA
PINAR A. The Geography of Digital Sovereignty in Education: Data Infrastructure and Platform Dependence across 29 Education Jurisdictions. International Journal of Strategy and Governance in Education. 2026;1(1), 17-35.
Chicago
PINAR, Abdulhalik. "The Geography of Digital Sovereignty in Education: Data Infrastructure and Platform Dependence across 29 Education Jurisdictions". International Journal of Strategy and Governance in Education 2026 1 no. 1 (2026): 17-35.
MLA
PINAR, Abdulhalik "The Geography of Digital Sovereignty in Education: Data Infrastructure and Platform Dependence across 29 Education Jurisdictions". International Journal of Strategy and Governance in Education, vol. 1, no. 1, 2026, pp. 17-35.

REFERENCES

  1. Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. A. (2019). The costs of connection: How data is colonizing human life and appropriating it for capitalism. Stanford University Press.
  2. Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. A. (2024). Data grab: The new colonialism of big tech and how to fight back. University of Chicago Press.
  3. Crampton, J. W. (2010). Mapping: A critical introduction to cartography and GIS. Wiley-Blackwell.
  4. Floridi, L. (2020). The fight for digital sovereignty: What it is, and why it matters, especially for the EU. Philosophy & Technology, 33(3), 369–378. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-020-00423-6
  5. Fratini, S., Hine, E., Novelli, C., Roberts, H., & Floridi, L. (2024). Digital sovereignty: A descriptive analysis and a critical evaluation of existing models. Digital Society, 3(3), 59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-024-00146-7
  6. Harley, J. B. (1989). Deconstructing the map. Cartographica, 26(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3138/E635-7827-1757-9T53
  7. Kerssens, N., & van Dijck, J. (2022). Governed by edtech? Valuing pedagogical autonomy in a platform society. Harvard Educational Review, 92(2), 284–303. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-92.2.284
  8. Kerssens, N., Nichols, T. P., & Pangrazio, L. (2024). Googlization(s) of education: Intermediary work brokering platform dependence in three national school systems. Learning, Media and Technology, 49(3), 478–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2023.2258339
  9. Knox, J., Williamson, B., & Bayne, S. (2020). Machine behaviourism: Future visions of 'learnification' and 'datafication' across humans and digital technologies. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(1), 31–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2019.1623251
  10. Landri, P. (2018). Digital governance of education: Technology, standards and Europeanization of education. Bloomsbury.
  11. Nichols, T. P., & Dixon-Román, E. (2024). Platform governance and education policy: Power and politics in emerging edtech ecologies. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 46(2), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737231202469
  12. OECD. (2023). Country digital education ecosystems and governance: A companion to Digital Education Outlook 2023. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/906134d4-en
  13. Pohle, J., & Thiel, T. (2020). Digital sovereignty. Internet Policy Review, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.14763/2020.4.1532
  14. Tan, K. L., Chi, C.-H., & Lam, K.-Y. (2023). Survey on digital sovereignty and identity: From digitization to digitalization. ACM Computing Surveys, 56(3), 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1145/3616400
  15. van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & de Waal, M. (2018). The platform society: Public values in a connective world. Oxford University Press.
  16. Williamson, B. (2021). Education technology seizes a pandemic opening. Current History, 120(822), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.2021.120.822.15

LICENSE

Creative Commons License
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.