معرفی
Rebecca Eynon is Professor of Education, the Internet, and Society at the University of Oxford, holding a joint appointment between the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and the Department of Education. At Oxford, she leads the Critical Digital Education Research group, focusing on the intersections between new technologies, learning and education across the lifecourse, with particular attention to questions of equity and social justice. Her academic journey at Oxford spans nearly two decades, progressing from Research Fellow (2005-2013) to Senior Research Fellow (2014-2020), Associate Professor (2014-2020), and finally to her current Professorship (2020-present).
Professor Eynon's research program critically examines the relationship between digital technologies and educational equity, investigating how digital and social exclusion manifest in educational contexts. Her work spans multiple dimensions including the political economy of EdTech, the sociology of digital education, everyday learning with the Internet, and the role of computational social science in education research. She employs mixed-methods approaches to explore how marginalized communities engage with digital technologies for learning, and how these engagements relate to broader patterns of social inequality. Her research consistently challenges assumptions about technology as an inherent equalizer in education, revealing complex dynamics where digital tools can both enable and constrain educational opportunities.
Her scholarly contributions show a clear trajectory toward increasingly critical examinations of AI in education, digital datafication, and algorithmic governance in learning environments. Recent publications demonstrate growing concern with ethical implications of digital trace data in education, structural inequalities in EdTech implementation, and the political economy of educational technology markets. This evolution reflects her commitment to not just documenting digital educational practices but interrogating the power structures that shape them.
Professor Eynon has secured research funding from prestigious organizations including the British Academy, the European Commission, Google, and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). She currently directs the ESRC-funded project 'Towards Equity Focused Approaches to EdTech' and serves as an international investigator for the Australian Research Council's Centre for the Digital Child. Her editorial leadership as co-editor of Learning, Media and Technology (2011-2021) has shaped scholarly discourse in the field, and she continues to serve on the editorial boards of this journal and Information and Learning Sciences.
As an educator, Professor Eynon teaches in both the OII's MSc in Social Science of the Internet and the Department of Education's MSc in Education (Digital and Social Change). She supervises doctoral students working on topics including AI, digital divides, education inequality, ethics, learning, skills, and youth. Her supervision portfolio includes current students like Liam Bekirsky, Amanda Curtis, AM Ploin, Sarah Stewart, and Anju Gaston, as well as former students such as Ulrike Deetjen and Isis Hjorth. Her commitment to critical perspectives on digital education extends to policy engagement, where she has advised organizations including the Good Things Foundation and the Robertson Foundation, and contributed to discussions through the RSA, Digital Access for All Taskforce, and Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation.
