Overview of Critical Theory

A third alternative to behaviorism is based on one of the most widely adopted forms of modern Marxism. Critical theory, also known as the Frankfurt School or neo-Marxism, has been used by a number of scholars to analyze the way information technology is used in education. Critical theory focuses on political, cultural, economic, and social relationships within a culture, particularly as they are related to what groups have power and which do not. A critical theorist, for example, might do an analysis of the ways schools are funded and point out that children from poor families tend to go to schools that are poorly funded while children of well-to-do parents go to schools with better funding. Critical theory also argues that information technology, or technology in general, is not value free. Critical theorists view IT as another means of production and as such it has to be viewed in the context of the political, ideological and cultural assumptions of the society that has given rise to it. Critical theorists are critical of behavioral models of instruction because they are based on capitalist "efficiency" models of factory work that demean the laborer (the student) and produce undesirable outcomes. Critical theorists also criticize educational software that portrays boys and men as the "movers and shakes" while portraying girls and women as "second class" participants. Similarly, critical theorists have looked at the way minorities have been portrayed in educational software.

General Implications of Critical Theory

The critical theorists have been much more active as critics of what has been done than they have been as creators and developers of models of what can be. Papers by Scott, Cole, and Engle (1992), Streibel (1991), and Apple (1991) are good examples. However, critical theorists do make some important points, particularly concerning equity issues such as equal access to technology resources in rich and poor schools and in regard to cultural and gender biases in some educational software.

Types of Instruction of Critical Theory

While critical theorists have not been very active in developing instructional approaches that include technology, they often recommend approaches developed by cognitive and social constructivists and they urge all teachers to be aware of issues such as gender and cultural biases.

Examples of Critical Theory Perspectives

Teacher Talk, Volume 2, Issue 2

• Cultural Diversity in the Classrooms
• Exercise on Cultural Diversity
• When the Teacher is a Minority
• Working With a Racially Mixed Population
• Teaching in an African-American Immersion School
• Strategies for Inclusion Initiative
• Teaching Immigrant and Migrant Students
• Ideas For Working With Students Who Speak English As A Second Language

Developing an Awareness of Gender Bias in Art Interpretation

The teacher shows the students a series of slides of artists' works. After each slide, the teacher asks: "Simply from looking at the slide, can you predict if this is the work of a male artist, a female artist, or is this an impossible task?" The students write their responses and write a brief explanation regarding their decision. Often, the students will predict the gender of the artist. The teacher then encourages the students to identify what element(s) of the work influenced their decision. The teacher can relate this discussion to common stereotypes relating to gender roles (i.e. only females paint with pink, only males draw dark or ominous scenes).

To take full advantage of  technology into this lesson, instead of using a series of slides, teachers may create or ask students to create a multimedia presentation integrating graphics, sound, and text  to bring this lesson to life. The teacher may also expand from art to different types of artistic expression such as music or expand from gender bias to different kinds of bias existing in the society to encourage the student to go beyond the limits set by either their own or society's gender-role expectations.

URL: http://www.clearinghouse.net/cgi-bin/chadmin/viewframe/Education/teaching_and_pedagogy/lesson_plans?1010

"They are not like us!": Teaching about Biases Against Immigration

This exercise helps students understand that our culture has survived and been enriched by each new wave of immigrants. Students should be aware that biases against immigrants have been expressed in each generation.

To take full advantage of technology into this lesson, teachers may help students create a multimedia presentation on the topic that integrates graphics, sound, and text to bring this lesson to life.

URL: http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v2i2/they.html

EDEQUITY (Educational Equity Discussion List)

URL: http://www.edc.org/hypermail/edequity/

Manifest Destiny: Understanding Through Simulation

Many groups of people throughout U.S. History (Mexican Americans, Native Americans, Mormons, and others) have lost their homelands due to the encroachment of others. This simulation is based on how the concept of Manifest Destiny affected the conflict between Mexican Americans and European Americans living in Texas in the 1820s and 1830s. It involves two classes: a visiting class and a host class. Each class begins in its own classroom.

Building Their Future: Girls and Technology Education in Connecticut

EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) Homepage

EASI's mission is to serve as a resource to the education community by providing information and guidance in the area of access-to-information technologies by individuals with disabilities. We stay informed about developments and advancements within the adaptive computer technology field and spread that information to colleges, universities, K-12 schools, libraries and into the workplace. Currently, EASI is the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant to disseminate information on access for disabled persons to science, engineering and math. Our membership is composed of people from colleges, universities, businesses and other institutions. They include computing staff, disabled student services staff, faculty, administrators, vendors, representatives of professional associations, private consultants, heads of both non-profit and for-profit organizations, faculty and staff from K-12 schools, and students. People with disabilities must have the same access to information and resources as everyone else. EASI is dedicated to helping that happen. The activities, projects and publications listed here are designed to help institutions provide the information and resources that people with disabilities deserve.

URL: http://www.rit.edu/~easi/index.html

Toward a Sociology of Educational Technology

These changing processes have already started. It seems clear that the social impacts of both device and process technologies are in many cases more important than the purely technical problems that technologies are ostensibly developed to solve. The author therefore proposes for "a new, critical sociology of educational technology , one that considers how technology affects the organization of schools, classrooms, and districts, how it provides opportunities for social groups to change their status, and how it interacts with other social and political movements that also focus on t he schools."
 
URL: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~stkerr/ethb94.htm

Challenges and Strategies in Using Technology to Promote Education Reform

The vision for technology-supported reform-oriented classrooms is one in which student groups work on long-term, multidisciplinary projects involving challenging content that is interesting and important to them with the support of technology tools for collecting, analyzing, displaying, and communicating information.

• Providing Adequate Technology Access
• Equalizing Technology Access
• Involving a Majority of Teachers
• Providing Technical Support for Technology Use and Maintenance

Critical and Vygotskian Theories of Education: a Comparison

1. Education and politics.
2. Critical theory and Radical Pedagogy.
3. Conclusions for Vygotskian theories of education.
 
URL: http://www.glasnet.ru/~vega/vygodsky/wardekkr.html