In the book “The Alienation of Fact” by Kenneth J. Saltman, the author examines the impact of educational privatization and technology on truth and agency. He explores the contradictions and competing visions for the future of education in the context of contemporary crises of truth and agency. The book discusses how schools are increasingly seen as businesses, and how technology such as AI, biometrics, and the quantification of play and social emotional learning are changing education. The author argues that the false certainty of bodies and numbers is replacing thoughtful agency, and that democratic education that values creating a society of “thinking people” is needed. This book is a valuable contribution to scholarship on public school privatization, educational technology, politics, policy, pedagogy, and theory.
