Edtech disruption logic and policy work: the case of an Israeli edtech unit

This article analyzes the intersection between neo-liberal educational reforms and educational technology in the Israeli education system, through a study of the policy work of an edtech research and development unit in Israel named MindCET, which operates a startup accelerator and other activities and programs. Based on ethnographic research from the first two years of MindCET’s operation (2013–2014) alongside analysis of interviews and publications, I explore the edtech sector discourse and practices expressed by MindCET and the ways in which it attempts to promote educational reforms based on technologies, methods, and reasoning from the techno-business world. The article traces the disruption logic of MindCET–which evolved from disruptive innovation business theory–and how this logic is manifested in MindCET’s activities and educational policy work. I claim that MindCET’s policy work is implemented not by promoting in-system change, but rather through its disruption mode: a set of activities that distribute connections, ideas, possibilities, and experiences that are intended to create conditions and mindsets for willingness for disruptive change in education.