This account of past educational change by Margaret Archer in Social Origins of Educational Systems struck me as an apt characterisation of what many providers of digital education are currently doing. Has any sought to compare current strategies to past strategies rather than treating digital education as something sui generis?
As a method of assertion, substitution is an attempt to displace an existing dominant group by devaluing its monopoly of educational supplies through market competition. Here the assertive group develops and provides new schools and teachers, hoping gradually to corner the educational market and thus impose its own definition of instruction. Unlike cases where restrictive strategies were employed, the integration of education to the central polity is an indirect consequence of interaction and certainly not one which groups embarking on substitution intended to occur.
Mark Carrigan 