Educational Technology and Pedagogic Encounters

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1 Educational Technology and Pedagogic Encounters

2 EDUCATIONAL FUTURES RETHINKING THEORY AND PRACTICE Volume 69 Series Editor Michael A. Peters, University of Waikato, New Zealand Editorial Board Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Miriam David, Institute of Education, London University, UK Cushla Kapitzke, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Simon Marginson, University of Melbourne, Australia Mark Olssen, University of Surrey, UK Fazal Rizvi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Susan Robertson, University of Bristol, UK Linda Tuhiwai Smith, University of Waikato, New Zealand Arun Kumar Tripathi, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India Scope This series maps the emergent field of educational futures. It will commission books on the futures of education in relation to the question of globalisation and knowledge economy. It seeks authors who can demonstrate their understanding of discourses of the knowledge and learning economies. It aspires to build a consistent approach to educational futures in terms of traditional methods, including scenario planning and foresight, as well as imaginative narratives, and it will examine examples of futures research in education, pedagogical experiments, new utopian thinking, and educational policy futures with a strong accent on actual policies and examples.

Educational Technology and Pedagogic Encounters Democratic Education in Potentiality Yusef Waghid Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Faiq Waghid Centre

3 Educational Technology and Pedagogic Encounters Democratic Education in Potentiality Yusef Waghid Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Faiq Waghid Centre for Learning Technologies, Stellenbosch University, South Africa and Zayd Waghid Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

4 A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: (paperback) ISBN: (hardback) ISBN: (e-book) Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands All chapters in this book have undergone peer review. Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved 2016 Sense Publishers No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

5 Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgements vii ix Chapter 1: Educational Theory and Technology 1 Introduction 1 Towards a Deleuzo-Guattarian Notion of Educational Technology 1 Towards a Rancièrean Notion of Educational Technology 4 Towards an Agambenian Notion of Educational Technology 5 Educational Technology as a Democratic Practice 7 Summary 13 Chapter 2: Educational Technology and the Enactment of Democratic Change 15 Introduction 15 Mobile Phones 17 Social Computing 19 Impediments that Make Educational Technology Unattractive for Use in Pedagogic Relations 28 Towards a Transformative View of Educational Technology and Its Pedagogic Implications 30 Summary 34 Chapter 3: Pedagogic Encounters in Educational Technology: Towards a Democratic Education of Co-Belonging 35 Introduction 35 Case 1: On the Possibility of Democratic Education In/Through Educational Technology: Action Research and Science Education in Potentiality 35 Case 2: On the Possibility of Democratic Education In/Through Educational Technology: Critical Discourse Analysis and Economics Education in Potentiality 66 The Potentialities of the Students and Description of the Films 67 Chapter 4: Democratic Education in Potentiality: Towards an Expansive View of Risk Taking in Pedagogic Encounters 89 Introduction 89 Learners Construct Personal Learning Contexts 89 v

6 Table of Contents Learning as Initiation into Individual Autonomy 90 Equalising Deliberative Pedagogic Relationships 92 Becoming Rhizomatic in Their Thinking 93 Democratic Education in Potentiality: Cultivating an Expansive View of Risk Taking 96 Chapter 5: On the Potentialities of Practising Educational Technology in Educational Institutions: Expanding Risk Taking in Pedagogic Encounters 97 Introduction 97 Enhancing Rhizomatic Thinking 97 Privileging Trust and Humour 98 Democratising or Equalising Classrooms 98 Establishing Inclusive Social Justice Interventions 99 Enhancing Socially Just Teaching and Learning 99 Summary 101 Chapter 6: Educational Technology and Socially Just Pedagogic Encounters 103 Introduction 103 Instances of Education for Social Justice 106 Education for Social Justice through Equity 116 Summary 120 References 121 Biographical Notes of Authors 127 Index 129 vi

7 Preface This book is an attempt to do something else in the realm of educational technology in the field of teacher education. Nowadays too much is being made of educational technology, often valorising it as a saviour of educational institutions, in particular in relation to teacher education programmes. The reasoning quite too often is: If educational technology is used in the training of teachers for primary and secondary education, then teachers possessing such capacities and skills might just be the panacea education systems require to respond to the challenges of learning, teaching and management in the modern era. We however are less optimistic if educational technology is perceived as an instrumental impetus for change in educational contexts. Such a technical view of education would be equally unresponsive to the demands of good education, because educational change cannot just be envisaged at the level of practice that is, if we change the practices of teaching, such as altering the techniques we use to teach, then the theories (thoughts and concepts) that guide such practices have to be attended to as well. As Jacques Derrida (2004, p. 153) aptly reminds us, theory (theoria) informs practice (praxis) and, in turn, practice modifies theory. By implication, just looking at how educational technology manifests in certain practices would be remiss of giving credence to the significant role of theory in guiding practice. Consequently, this book looks at both the underlying theories of educational technology, and the ways in which practice is guided. Moreover, our work throughout this book is not devoid of producing ends. As for Derrida (2004, p. 148), end-orientation is not necessarily bad in itself, as the end in itself can prepare students to undertake new analyses and evaluations that can result in new possibilities. So, our understanding and situatedness within educational technology (means) as opposed to using or applying educational technology is aimed at cultivating practices (ends) that open up possibilities for new ways of democratic action. In other words, we do not pledge in advance that our embeddedness within educational technology has a utilitarian end in mind, but rather that our situatedness within educational technology (a practice itself) leaves open possibilities for new ways of understanding democratic education. We have organised this book into six interrelated chapters that point towards the cultivation of educational technology as a human practice that guides pedagogic encounters on the basis of taking risks in relation to which the unexpected, unimaginable is always in potentiality: Chapter 1 introduces educational theory and its links to technology, giving rise to the notion of educational technology as a practice. The authors argue that educational technology, like education, is a human experience that guides pedagogic encounters between teachers and students. In turn, such pedagogic encounters mostly teaching and learning are inclined towards the cultivation of democratic education. Hence, vii

8 PREFACE educational technology is inherently democratic, as it can be expanded from liberal deliberative engagements towards actions that are rhizomatic, disruptive and potentially imaginative; Chapter 2 highlights various instances of educational technology and, in particular, focuses on Facebook as one of the instances in which educational technology becomes manifest. The authors proffer that technological devices or tools have educational potential and invariably engender democratic action, in which students and teachers engage as human agents; Chapter 3 analyses two teacher-student projects to show how Facebook, as an instance of educational technology, can cultivate democratic action. The main argument of the two case studies is that educational technology has the potential to cultivate autonomous, disruptively equal and deliberatively rhizomatic pedagogic encounters that have a socially just orientation; Chapter 4 highlights various forms of democratic education that emanate from the case studies, which draw on a continuum of action ranging from deliberatively engaging encounters to the enactment of disruptively rhizomatic assemblages that remain in potentiality. At the core of such pedagogic encounters is the practice of taking risks as teachers and students endeavour to enact democratic moments in their practices; Chapter 5 examines the implications of disruptive deliberative engagement for learning and teaching in universities and schools. The authors contend that pedagogic encounters amongst students and teachers involve endearing themselves towards participants coming to speech in an atmosphere of co-belonging where possibilities for whatever can emanate from the encounters remain in becoming; and Chapter 6 investigates the implications of educational technology as a democratic practice for social justice education. Put differently, the authors posit that educational technology is inherently constituted by socially just action that is inextricably linked to ideas of sustainable development, economic development and equity. viii

9 Acknowledgements The case studies in this book emerged from the doctoral work in which two of us have been involved and that have been adapted and modified for the purposes of this book: Waghid, F. (2013). Towards the Democratisation of Senior Phase School Science Through the Application of Educational Technology. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation (Department of Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education: Stellenbosch University); and Waghid, Z. (2014). A Discourse Analysis of Education for Social Justice Focusing on Sustainable Development, Equality and Economic Development: Implications for Teaching and Learning. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation (Department of Education Policy Studies, Faculty of Education: Stellenbosch University). ix

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