Steve Keirl

Ethical Technological Literacy as Democratic Curriculum Keystone

I would like to set the scene for this chapter by making four interrelated points. First, I take as a premise that something called “democracy” is a desirable form of social and political organization for our local and global harmonious coexistence. I see such a democracy as an ethically defensible system of politics and government. I also take as a premise that something called education is essential to healthy democratic practice—in at least a twofold sense. This education must, in ethically defensible ways, both educate for democracy and be conducted democratically.

‘Seeing’ and ‘Interpreting’ the Human-Technology Phenomenon

This chapter formulates and addresses the dual challenge of how to understand Technology, and how this might inform the development of Technology Education for the future. Philosophy, in its role as critical toolbox, offers hermeneutics as a device for technological interpretation and meaning-making. By setting up a series of binaries, a hermeneutic approach can be used not only to explore Technology holistically and analytically, but also to look to cultural, historical and political relationships. The idea of binarial hermeneutics enables Technology’s complexity to become manageable through a focus on issues, which include: local and global, traditional and emergent, product and process, technical and designerly, and academic and practical. These binaries are not ‘either-or’ but ‘at-once-both’, enabling analysis along a spectrum. Such a binarial approach offers a way of interrogating the rich and complex areas of Technology Education in order to develop informed ways forward.

Against Neoliberalism; for Sustainable-Democratic Curriculum; Through Design and Technology Education

The educational point of the public school curriculum is understanding, understanding the relations among academic knowledge, the state of society, the processes of self formation, and the character of the historical moment in which we live, in which others have lived, and in which our descendants will someday live.

Global ethics, sustainability, and Design and Technology Education

Evocative of both family and humankind-to-come, ‘generations’ is a common reference for sustainability. We look back and we look forward across generations and an implicit blend of emotion speaks to concerns for ‘future generations’ or ‘intergenerational justice’. Five witnesses who share these concerns step forward from the past half-century, a period spanning almost three generations.

Primary Design and Technology Education and Ethical Technological Literacy

We humans are a dominant species. We live on the planet, we live off it, we occupy and colonise it, we use it. It can be argued that we are taking much of value from it and giving little of value back. Such observations can fall under a heading of ‘the environment’ – a rather loose term that is often used without clarification.

Critiquing as Design and Technology Curriculum Journey: History, Theory, Politics and Potential

Critiquing, as a key component of Design and Technology (DT the politics of DT the theoretical underpinnings of the critiquing innovation; its local, national and international contexts; the curriculum challenges its introduction was intended to resolve; and some consequent theorisation since its inception. In this story, ‘Design and Technology’ is seen as much more than a school ‘subject’. It is argued that critical-ethical design and technological literacy is necessary if sustainable, democratic futures are to be achieved. Critiquing is fundamental to such literacy.

Introducing the Book

At the joint PATT/CRIPT conference in London in 2011 a small number of very interesting presentations were made that each linked in some way to concerns for sustainability and the contribution Design and Technology (D&T) Education can make to positive futures.

Caught in the Currents - The Shaping of Primary Technology Education in Australia

This chapter documents the principal curriculum developments in Technology Education for the Australian primary school sector over the past two decades. For reasons of space, scope and data availability, it is necessarily broad in its approach.

The Growth of Primary Design and Technology Teacher Education in South Australia

As a major Australian Primary Design and Technology Education provider, the University of South Australia’s School of Education has undergone a decade of considerable change - of the kind affecting all universities (e.g. globalisation, markets, new policy directions). In the same period, Design and Technology curriculum design has also moved significantly.