Fragmented data, governance dashboard: Datafication, power, and the political economy of digital education policy

The expansion of digital education policies has intensified demands for data-driven governance, particularly in large and decentralized public education systems. In Brazil, however, educational technology data are fragmented across institutions, policy domains, and governance levels, limiting their capacity to support equitable decision-making. This article examines a national initiative developed within the Estratégia Nacional de Escolas Conectadas (National Strategy for Connected Schools), focusing on the construction and use of a governance dashboard that aggregates heterogeneous datasets related to digital infrastructure, teacher training, curriculum implementation, and public investment. Rather than approaching the dashboard as a neutral technical tool, the article conceptualizes it as a sociotechnical device embedded in the political economy of public investment, data infrastructures, and state capacity in digital education policy. Drawing on critical perspectives on datafication and educational governance, this study analyzes how the dashboard enables new forms of policy coordination and visibility while simultaneously constraining what counts as educationally meaningful through administrative metrics and self-reported indicators. The paper discusses methodological choices and limitations, including data coverage asymmetries, participatory interpretation and institutional alignment processes, and risks of performativity and overinterpretation. Using the Brazilian case to illustrate broader dynamics in the Global South, the research highlights that governance dashboards are best understood as starting points for critical inquiry and policy dialogue, rather than as authoritative instruments of evaluation.