Professor Rebecca Eynon has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the OII announced. Eynon holds a joint academic post at the Oxford Internet Institute and the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the injustices that can arise from the use of technologies in learning and education.
The Academy of Social Sciences Fellowship comprises around 1,700 leading social scientists, elected through independent peer review for excellence in their fields and for contributions to social science for public benefit.
Professor Eynon said: “I am delighted and honoured to be elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and join such an esteemed community. I am indebted to my academic colleagues, students, and collaborators from policy and practice who made this recognition possible.”
Research focus
Eynon is described by the OII as a Sociologist of Education whose work sits at the intersection of education, technology, and society. The OII’s announcement states that her empirical research highlights people’s experiences of using technologies for learning across the life course and examines how and why injustices can arise from technology design and use — positioned explicitly against what she describes as uncritical hype surrounding digital technologies and AI.
At the Department of Education, she convenes the Critical Digital Education Research Group, which the OII describes as fostering sociological scholarship on the role of technology in learning and education nationally and internationally. She is listed as a member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of Sociology of Education, Information and Learning Sciences, and Learning, Media and Technology, and was co-editor of Learning, Media and Technology from 2011 to 2021.
Current projects and governance roles
Eynon currently leads the Towards Equity Focused Approaches to EdTech Project, a three-year study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Education Programme. The project uses ethnographic research in schools to examine how EdTech is used in practice, with a stated focus on whether technology addresses or inadvertently reinforces inequities. The team works with academics, EdTech companies, policymakers, teachers, students, and other members of the education community.
She is a steering board member for the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Digital Transformation Programme, which the OII describes as investigating and presenting policy options for digital and social change. She is also listed as an international investigator for the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, dedicated to creating research-informed positive digital experiences for children.
Her work has been cited by the Sutton Trust, the British Academy, the Royal Society, UNESCO, the OECD, the European Union, the United Nations, the World Bank, and various national and regional governments, according to the OII. In the UK, she has given evidence to the Education Select Committee and provided expert input to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and the government’s Open Innovation Team.
Professor Eynon teaches on the MSc in Education (Digital and Social Change) at the Department of Education and the MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute. The OII states she supervises doctoral students at both departments whose research focuses on digital education, technology, and social justice.