Automating the learner: behavioural biometrics, inference, and the new visibility in education

This article examines the rise of biometric technologies that aim to interpret learners’ behaviour through automated facial, postural and attentional analysis. These systems are increasingly embedded in classrooms, platforms and assessment environments, offering institutions a stream of data about how learners appear to feel, engage or deviate. The paper introduces the concept of biometric behavioural legibility to describe the process by which learners’ bodies are made visible to automated systems, and through which institutional judgements are generated. Drawing on theories of datafication, platform governance and the sociology of the body, the analysis shows how these systems do not merely observe, but actively construct which forms of embodiment are intelligible, actionable and institutionally permissible. The article traces the infrastructural, pedagogical and ethical implications of this shift, arguing that such systems produce a narrowing of professional judgement and redefine learning as a machine-readable performance. The article introduces a conceptual framework that identifies the modes through which biometric inference is rendered institutionally actionable, offering a critical heuristic for scholars and practitioners concerned with the governance of learning. It concludes by calling for critical re-specification of what educational systems count as visibility, care and knowledge.