Educational Technology: A Presupposition of Equality?

Y

16

Foreign Countries; Educational Technology; Teachers; Equal Education; Democracy; Educational Philosophy; Teacher Role; Political Influences

Australia; United Kingdom; United States

10.1080/1359866X.2014.956049

1359-866X

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.

As Provided

51

2014

EJ1042762