Autoroll: scripting the emergence of classroom facial recognition technology

ABSTRACT

This paper considers how facial recognition technology is coming to find a place in contemporary schooling. Drawing on the ‘script analysis’ approach from the field of Science and Technology Studies, the paper examines the development of a facial recognition-based classroom recognition system by an Australian start-up company – ‘AutoRoll’. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary data, the paper details the ongoing negotiations and mechanisms of adjustment between start-up founders, developers, marketers, policy and education actors as this socio-technical object progresses through successive phases of scripting, deinscripting and rescripting. These accounts illustrate how an initially contested technology enters a local educational system and begins to be sold to schools. In particular, the paper considers the ways in which a spirit of tech industry ‘solutionism’ is used to manufacture trust and legitimacy in the face of the disjointed governance and limited oversight of ed-tech by government and other public agencies.

KEYWORDS:

• Facial recognition
• schools
• surveillance
• biometrics
• start-up
• sociotechnical

Acknowledgement

This paper derives from fieldwork undertaken as part of two research projects – an Australian Research Council funded ‘Discovery’ project (DP200100189), and a preceding Monash University ‘Inter-Faculty Grant’. Monash University ethics approval was granted for all interviews – project approval #21823.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number DP200100189].