Deep Educational Privatization and the Algorithmic Turn: Conceptual and Research Imperatives

This paper contends that grasping the current dynamics of educational privatization—especially as they are transformed by artificial intelligence (AI)—requires moving beyond traditional neoliberal frameworks. While prior forms of privatization focused on transactional, market-based exchanges, today's "deep privatization" is characterized by AI-driven, semi-autonomous systems that embed private interests within the core infrastructure and daily operations of education. Adopting a post-neoliberal lens, I demonstrate that privatization now operates at the intersection of state strategy, techno-capitalist platform dominance, and patronage-oriented policy, resulting in a hybrid formation of educational governance. Drawing on global cases and recent research, the paper argues that the impact of AI is less about abrupt disruption and more about the incremental, durable restructuring of authority, governance, and public accountability in education. I conclude that an integrated approach—one that combines conceptual innovation with empirical rigor—is required to illuminate and address the embedded and evolving mechanisms of deep privatization in the algorithmic era.