The expansion of digital platforms in education has been a process characterised by discretion, speed, and acceleration in the wake of the COVID pandemic19 and the closure of face-to-face education (Barbour et al. 2020). The introduction of large-scale digital platforms is transforming teaching and learning processes and school governance (Decuypere et al., 2021). Despite their rapid implementation in education systems in a wide range of countries, we still have little evidence on the factors and reasons behind the adoption of digital platforms from large technology corporations in public education systems.

In this article we explore how digitisation policies in education have been adopted in Catalonia. To do so, the analysis is based on Jessop's (2010) contributions to the study of policy adoption processes. The author identifies three moments of reform processes to analyse the interaction between material and ideational drivers of change. Following this logic, the article reconstructs this process through which 1) a crisis emerges, and a problem is identified (moment of variation), 2) policy solutions are chosen over others (selection) and 3) a particular policy is deployed (retention).

While the empirical research is developed in Catalonia (Spain), the analytical approach contributes to unveil the tensions underlying the process of digitalisation of the education system (Landri y Vatrella, 2019) and understand how international, European, and national drivers contribute to set the scene for the adoption of some political strategies and for the exclusion of other possible alternatives.

Methodologically, the study is based on an analysis of the discourse of relevant actors in the digitisation policy of Catalonia over the last 25 years (n=4), and of other experts in the field of digitisation of education at the international level, from large technology corporations (n=2), international organisations (n=3) and researchers (n=2). In addition, policy documents that have guided or are trying to guide the digitisation of education policy at the European, Spanish, and Catalan level are analysed. All these discourses are analysed on the basis of the identification of references to material or ideational drivers and are also classified according to the moment in the process of policy adoption to which they refer.

The results of the research point to the predominance of economic and possibilistic discourses at the moment of variation, the weight of large technological corporations and their solutionist approach at the moment of selection, and a somewhat suspicious adherence at the moment of retention. Overall, this analysis suggests certain patterns in the process of adopting education digitisation policies that may be common to other contexts, given the leading role of global players in defining the local digitisation agenda.

Barbour, M. K., LaBonte, R., Hodges, C. B., Moore, S., Lockee, B. B., Trust, T., & Kelly, K. (2020). Understanding pandemic pedagogy: Differences between emergency remote, remote, and online teaching. State of the Nation. K-12 e-Learning in Canada. Retrieved from: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/101905/understanding-pandemic-pedagogy.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Decuypere, M., Grimaldi, E., & Landri, P. (2021). Introduction: Critical studies of digital education platforms. Critical Studies in Education, 62(1), 1-16. Jessop, B. (2010). Cultural political economy and critical policy studies. Critical policy studies, 3(3-4), 336-356. Landri, P., y Vatrella, S. (2019). Assembling Digital Platforms in Education Policy. A Comparative Analysis of Scuola in Chiaro and Eduscopio Assembling Digital Platforms in Education Policy. Scuola Democratica, 3. https://doi.org/10.12828/95947