Led by Dr Chris Zomer from Deakin University, a new study has cast a critical eye over how Google creates educational legitimacy for kids’ apps in the Google Play Store, finding the ‘teacher approved’ badge could be misleading.

Zomer says the aim of the Google Teacher Approved program appears not to assess an app’s educational quality, but rather to create the appearance of it.

He notes that one of the most surprising findings that emerged in the research process was how little information Google provided about the program and who the verifying teachers are behind it.

“There were limits to what we could find - I wanted to know who are these teachers behind this program, where are they based, are they being paid, etc.

“I tried to find this out and couldn't…” the associate research fellow tells EducationHQ.

The Conversation put questions to Google on behalf of the researchers but did not receive a reply, Zomer reports.  

Five children’s app developers from four different countries were interviewed as part of the study.

Their experiences with the program were telling, Zomer suggests.

“They also did not understand what the program meant very well, and a few of them found it quite random.

“I spoke to one developer and they submitted something, which was rejected and they submitted it again and it was accepted, it did get that ‘teacher approved’ label.”

Some of the developers were concerned that there were ‘teacher approved’ apps that lacked educational quality and that the selection criteria was too broad, Zomer adds.

 “[They said] it's not really selective enough.

“[The badge] doesn't necessarily mean they are all good apps, so some developers are disappointed by that.”

Google offers an online course for developers who want to be included in the Teacher Approved section, which Zomer himself completed.

He says much of the course content was contradictory.

“[Google claims] that apps do not have to be educational, yet they are being assessed for educational impact.

“It's quite explicit in there, but then they're not clear about what this educational impact is and how it's been measured.”

In the developer’s section of its site, Google notes it is not exclusively teachers who assess the apps. It says “teachers and children’s education and media specialists recommend high-quality [Teacher Approved] apps for kids on Google Play.”

In 2020, Google shared the names of two experts who were ‘lead advisers’ at the time – a developmental psychologist and an education and media expert.

Yet it remains unclear who the “teachers” and “specialists” who currently rate the apps are and how many of them are actually qualified educators, the researchers flag.

Google states in the course that as long as it is “enriching” and “support(s) a child’s healthy development”, an app doesn’t need to be educational.

Zomer says some Teacher Approved apps were labelled by their developer as pure entertainment – such as  Paw Patrol Rescue World which has a Teacher Approved badge, despite being labelled as ‘action-adventure’ by the developer.

The study concludes that the aim of the program is “not to assess educational quality, but rather to create educational quality”.

“Google uses ambiguity by design to invoke a sense of educational relevance without needing to make any explicit claims of educational effectiveness,” it argues.

In Zomer’s view, teacher professionalism has been somewhat exploited here.

“My personal opinion is that [the program is] a bit misleading because first of all, it's true that it's teachers who, if failure ideas, well, that's not necessarily the case.

“Secondly, it's supposed to reveal something about educational value just because teachers are mentioned, and you automatically assume that there is some educational dimension, right?

“But that’s also not necessarily the case. It's more about child-appropriate content and what Google considers to be good app design,” Zomer says.

To be included in the Teacher Approved section, an app needs to adhere to Google’s family policies, which includes having a simple and clear interface and content that is appropriate for children.

Any ads, in-app purchases or cross-promotion “must be appropriate” too. 

“So, one of the good things about the program is that it does filter out the worst things of app design, like things that we probably don't want, such as kids' gambling elements or rewarding kids for watching apps ... but it definitely might not be a good indicator of quality apps,” Zomer says.