Questioning Technology

This book revisits current technocentric educational reform policy and examines the meaning of educational reform within the context of a technological society and globalized market economy. Having colonized the politics of educational reform, technocentrism has narrowed the social space of educational reform discourse by invalidating alternative social visions germane to the tradition of social justice and the development of a civic society. This book interrogates current technocentric discourse through the voices of educators who engage in the practice of «questioning technology» and raises significant issues regarding the dominance of a technology-based reform agenda, techno-utopianism as a dominant social vision, and the positioning of teachers within school cultures reconfigured by control technologies and performity. Educators need to create a deliberative approach to technology adoption, for only by assuming a more questioning stance toward the adoption of technological innovations can we hope to avoid technological determinism and take responsibility for the consequences of our inventions.

Autorentext

The Author: Karen A. Ferneding is Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Through her research she examines the role of teachers and the political and sociocultural context of education, specifically the dynamics of globalization, electronic technologies, media, and youth culture.

Zusammenfassung
"One of the greatest problems facing education in the contemporary world is the humanization and democratization of technology, firmly linked to questions of social justice and equity. Karen Ferneding's 'Questioning Technology: Electronic Technologies and Educational Reform' provides us with an account that questions not only the technocentric rationale that pervades recent education reform but also lays out an emerging alternative social vision of education. It is both a humane and hopeful book directed toward a cultural approach to technology that views practices of educational innovation as contextual and situated processes... Ferneding's book is an excellent contribution to the literature that ought to be required reading for teachers, administrators, and education policy-makers." (Michael A. Peters, University of Glasgow)
"'Questioning Technology: Electronic Technologies and Educational Reform' provides a critical look at the use of computers in education that is grounded in both theory and actual observation in the field. It represents an important contribution to the literature on educational computing." (Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr., Author of 'Beyond the Gutenberg Galaxy', 'Video Kids and Computers', and 'Curriculum and Cultural Change')