Page 85 - Education in a Digital World

72 National Policymaking

technology appears to have been driven consistently by a well-worn set of mandates
pertaining to deal with economic success in the globalised ‘knowledge economy’.
Indeed Zhao et al. (2006) pointed out ‘tremendous’ and ‘remarkable’ similarities
between the policy agendas of developed and developing countries during the
1990s and 2000s – contending that most countries’ national educational technology
policy programmes portrayed a close relationship between the increased use of
technology in educational institutions and later success in global economic markets.
This had resulted in what these authors described as “a techno-centric, utopian
and economic driven mind-set” amongst policymakers the world over (Zhao et al.
2006, p.674).
Linkages between education technology and global economic concerns are certainly
evident throughout the recent history of educational technology policymaking in
the UK, US, Japan, Chile and Singapore. For instance, it is noticeable how invest-
ment in education and technology was used during the 1990s as a major prop in the
theatre of economic conflict between nations – especially in countries such as
the US and UK. This was apparent in these countries’ attempts to enhance national
competitiveness by creating education systems seen fit to support and drive suc-
cessful knowledge economies. Indeed, the framing of educational technology in
terms of economic competition was laid out explicitly in official political pro-
nouncements of the combination of education and technology being “the best
economic policy we have” (Tony Blair, cited in DfEE 1998, p.9), and as a crucial
element in ‘winning’ the twenty-first century (Bill Clinton, cited in Information
Infrastructure Task Force 1993). In the eyes of these policymakers and others like
them, the economic rather than pedagogic significance of educational technology
could be said to have driven and shaped its implementation in the classroom.
It is, therefore, tempting to critique these educational technology policies as little
more than speculative attempts by nation states to improve local educational
conditions while also hoping to bolster their economic fortunes. Indeed, state
technology policies such as these have tended to attract criticism from policy ana-
lysts for their “narrow definitions” and “simple-minded goals” predicated mainly
upon a global form of economic success (Jensen and Lauritsen 2005, p.353). Yet the
notion of these educational policies being driven solely by common aspirations of
economic success is perhaps an over-simplification of more complex sets of struggles
and negotiations that have shaped all of the national policy histories outlined in this
chapter. As such, an economically determinist reading of educational technology
policymaking could be said to run the risk of over-simplifying many subtle but
significant divergences in the policymaking efforts of different nation states.
It is useful, therefore, to view the apparently global economic basis for educa-
tional technology policymaking as obscuring a more complex political economy of
nation building. As we saw in Chapter 2, a political economy perspective focuses
attention on the relationship between education, economy and society in different
national contexts, and therefore challenges the extent to which globalisation is
leading to a convergence in national approaches to these issues. An emphasis on the