Education informatization has attracted global attention. Many countries have introduced policies that encourage and regulate the use of ICT in education settings. Studies on the impact of these policies have been conducted in the United States, Finland, Singapore, Italy, and many more countries. Private companies as knowledge brokers who can form private-public partnerships have become apparent on various occasions. Nevertheless, very few research have studied the policy of education informatization in China, particularly on the role of Ed-Tech companies.

In China, three waves of education technology reforms have been initiated in the past two decades. Different from other education reforms that mainly happened in the closed education professional cycle, education informatization requires education professionals to interact with new technology and companies that developed these products. During these processes, education technology companies have demonstrated an increasingly visible presence. These companies have evolved from ‘hardware and software suppliers’, who participated in the open biting, competing for the business, to technology ‘solution providers’, who designed and directed the school on how to use technology in almost all learning scenes. Meanwhile, however, they remain invisible from the official and documented procedures, hiding in the shadows to ensure the attention has not been shifted away from the government and the school system.

Through an examination of different forms of collaboration between Chinese education technology companies and schools, the article aims to understand how ed-tech companies make an impact on China’s formal education through digital governance. Inspired by actor-network theory, this research unfolds the complex networks by presenting the interactions between different actors, including private companies, schools, and education bureaus, throughout the policy-making, execution, and evaluation process.

This research is a qualitative study that maps the interaction between different actors throughout the process of policy-making, execution, and evaluation on the topic of education informatization at China’s regional level. For this article, more than twenty-five experts are interviewed, including managers from China’s leading ed-tech companies, school leaders who participated in the ed-tech projects, and Chinese government officials on the regional level who participated in the local ed-tech policy making. Based on qualitative data from these in-depth semi-structured interviews, IO documentaries, and Chinese media coverage, preliminary findings indicate that Ed-tech companies could play an invisible yet vital role in different phrases of policy-making, execution, and evaluation.

The paper argues that, with the PRC’s agenda in education informatization, Chinese Ed-Tech companies have become increasingly involved in China’s school education through multiple means. Since the technology products are used in almost all steps of pedagogy and administration, these products have altered the traditional form of education practices. The companies that designed these tech products and programs have become active actors in the digital governance of education. They serve multiple roles as the school leader’s invisible analyst and advisor, such as product developers, solution providers, policy analysts, teaching advisors, etc. These companies are active actors who participate in all procedures from policy making to policy execution and policy evaluation. Through the use of technology, they develop social networks between policymakers, bridge the parents and teachers, and facilitate school administration. The policy of education informatization has been utilized as an opportunity for these companies to obtain a voice, allowing them to engage in the traditionally isolated Chinese education system.

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