Page 38 - Education in a Digital World

Theoretical Approaches 25

learning and teaching, and thereby often overly concerned with matters relating to
individual behaviours and individual development. The predominance of these
concerns has led to a rather restricted view of technology use led by a common
enthusiasm for social-constructivist and sociocultural theories of learning which, at
best, offer a very localised understanding of the ‘social’ contexts in which technol-
ogy use takes place. Despite regular calls for theoretical expansion and sophistication
(e.g. Hlynka and Belland 1991, Livingstone 2012), educational technology remains
a field that ventures rarely from these concerns. Indeed, it could be argued that
even as it approaches a stage of ‘middle-age’ respectability, educational technology is
an area of academic study that is stuck stubbornly in its ways – remaining in thrall to
technicist notions of ‘best practice’, ‘effectiveness’ and proving ‘what works’. In this
sense educational technology remains a field of academic endeavour that is largely
instrumentalist in its approach, with many writers and researchers concerned with
the production of ‘useful’ but ‘simple’ accounts that make claims for digital tech-
nology and education regardless of social context. While this lack of theoretical
grounding may be of little concern to the many educational technology practi-
tioners ‘on the ground’ who continue to work successfully and profitably in the
area, it presents a problem for addressing the social concerns of this particular book.
Given the scope of the issues raised so far, there is a need for our proceeding ana-
lyses of education and digital technology around the world to take as considered
and theoretically sophisticated an approach as possible.
With these thoughts in mind, this chapter will now go on to examine how the
careful use of social theory can help develop richer understandings of the structures,
actions, processes and relations that lie behind the ‘global’ implementation and use
of digital technology in education. Of course, choosing a theoretical perspective or
stance is largely a matter of personal conviction and belief. This chapter therefore makes
no claim to there being one ‘correct’ reading of the issues surrounding technology
and education (let alone technology, education and globalisation). Yet, it seems
reasonable to assume that any attempt to make sense of the many forms of education
and digital technologies to be found around the world will benefit from taking a
broad approach to social theory. As such, there are a number of different theoretical
approaches within the social sciences that may be of use – focusing variously on the
contextualised and politically shaped nature of education and globalisation, as well
as the socially constructed nature of digital technologies and education. In this spirit,
we can first consider three potentially useful theoretical approaches to understanding
the nature of education in the contemporary globalised world.

Thinking about Education and Technology

The Benefits of the Comparative Education Approach

There has been a long history of comparative analysis in the social sciences, stemming
back to Durkheim’s development of comparative sociology during the last years of