PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 23, No. 1, July 3, 2003

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“Questioning Technology: Electronic Technologies and Educational Reform,” by Karen A. Ferneding

Karen A. Ferneding, a professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education, revisits current technocentric educational reform policy and examines the meaning of educational reform within the context of a technological society and globalized market economy in her new book, “Questioning Technology: Electronic Technologies and Educational Reform.”

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. Ferneding argues that 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 they hope to avoid technological determinism and take responsibility for the consequences of inventions.

Through her research at the UI, Ferneding examines the role of teachers and the political and sociocultural context of education, specifically the dynamics of globalization, electronic technologies, media and youth culture.

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