Educational technology: a presupposition of equality?

Abstract

The work of philosopher Jacques Rancière is used conceptually and methodologically to frame an exploration of the driving interests in educational technology policy and the sanctioning of particular discursive constructions of pedagogy that result. In line with Rancière’s thinking, the starting point for this analysis is that of equality – that people are legally, morally, intellectually, and in their everyday practices discursively equal. The use of Rancière’s concepts, demos, police, and politics, to analyse three educational technology policies internationally shows that teachers are positioned within these policies as discursively unequal, and as intellectually inferior, not only in terms of technology expertise, but crucially as pedagogues. This positioning has important implications for teachers and teacher education. Teachers are capable of recognising and critiquing inequality, and this article makes a case for an act of politics that aims to reconfigure allocated identities and power imbalances in the educational technology order.

Keywords:

• democracy
• equality
• policy
• Rancière
• teacher education
• teachers
• technology

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Bobby Harreveld, Michael Singh and Wayne Sawyer for their assistance and support in writing this article.

Notes

1. Twenty-first-century education is a framework developed in response to the idea that every child needs twenty-first-century knowledge and skills to succeed as effective citizens, workers, and leaders. In addition to traditional curriculum subjects, a twenty-first-century framework also includes a focus on critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation (see Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2002, p. 21).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joanne Orlando

Dr Joanne Orlando examines contemporary life through the lens of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to understand how ICT sits alongside and against established teaching and learning practices in formal and informal contexts.