Drawing on rich cross-cultural perspectives from Pakistan, Israel, Canada, the US and the UK, the authors challenge readers to envision new ways of thinking for education: ways which draw on imagination, the arts and the collective ...

This book is a call to educators everywhere to recognize and resist the global forces which are driving educational policy deeper and deeper into narrow discourses of performance, accountability and e~certaintiese(tm) about what works.

The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) theory offers a useful conceptual framework for examining the social and cultural factors that may contribute to or detract from the successful integration of computer technology into educational environments. This theory, which grew out of studies in the history of technology and the sociology of science, suggests methods for studying the phenomenon of technological development, such as identifying the relevant social groups involved in the development process and the factors that either leave the technology (...) in a state of interpretive flexibility or bring the interpretation of the technology to closure. This paper uses a SCOT approach to explore how personal and institutional beliefs can shape the ways in which technologies are used by teachers and students, and to identify the social, epistemological, cognitive and motivational factors that need to be considered as computer technology becomes an integral part of the educational experience. (shrink)