Science and Technology as Social Relations Towards a Philosophy of Technology for Liberal Education
Hansen K.-H.
1997
International Journal of Technology and Design Education
13
10.1023/A:1008877709733
This paper raises the question of the philosophical base of a liberal technology education, assuming that it cannot be provided simply by an engineer's perspective. It therefore reconstructs known ideas about technology in terms of the social relationships inherent in the development, gestalt and use of technical artifacts. The outcomes of this reconstruction are perceptual relationships in the phenomenology of technology, power relationships in critical theory, and artifact-designer relationships in social constructivism. Based on these outcomes, the paper suggests a series of questions for reconstructing the cultural meaning of technology and a structural model that shows how meaning is generated through a variety of social relationships. The final section deals with the educational implications of this approach. These include a shift from teaching content matter isolated from social considerations towards a dialectic engagement with the social and technical dimensions of technological activity in order to make technology education meaningful for all students.
Aronowitz S., Science as Power. Discourse and Ideology in Modern Society, (1988); Bijker W.E., Do Not Despair: There Is Life after Constructivism, Science, Technology & Human Values, 18, 1, pp. 113-138, (1993); Bloor D., Knowledge and Social Imagery, (1991); Britton E., California's Systemic Improvement of Science Education, Science and Mathematics Education in the United States: Eight Innovations, pp. 19-58, (1993); Edge D.O., Technological Metaphor, Meaning and Control. Essays in Social Aspects of Science and Technology, pp. 31-59, (1973); Eggleston J., Teaching Design and Technology Education, (1992); Ewert G.D., Habermas and Education: A Comprehensive Overview on the Influence of Habermas in Educational Literature, Review of Educational Research, 61, 3, pp. 345-378, (1991); Feenberg A., Hannay A., Technology and the Politics of Knowledge, (1996); Franklin U., The Real World of Technology, (1990); Grant E., Technology and Justice, (1986); Halbwachs M., Das Kollektive Gedächtnis, (1985); Hansen K.-H., Computer als Werkzeug oder als gesellschaftliches Phänomen?, Computer und Unterricht, 12, pp. 51-54, (1993); Hansen K.-H., Buck R., Lang M., Practicing Integration in Science Education. An Innovation Project for Science Education in Germany. German Case Study for the Project 'Curriculum and Innovation in Learning Science, Math and Technology Education in OECD Countries', (1995); Ihde D., Existential Techniques, (1983); Ihde D., Postphenomenology: Essays in the Postmodern Context, (1993); Illich I., Tools for Conviviality, (1973); Klafki W., Neue Studien zur Bildungstheorie und Didaktik. Zeitgemäße Allgemeinbildung und Kritisch-konstruktive Didaktik, (1991); Knorr-Cetina K.D., The Manufacture of Knowledge. An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science, (1981); Kuhn T.S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, (1970); Lakoff G., Johnson M., Metaphors We Life by, (1980); Latour B., Science in Action. How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society, (1987); Marcuse H., Industrialisierung und Kapitalismus im Werk Max Webers, Kultur und Gesellschaft 2, pp. 107-129, (1965); Merton R.K., The Sociology of Science, (1972); Mitcham C., Thinking Through Technology. The Path between Engineering and Philosophy, (1994); Nilsen D.L.F., Live, Dead, and Terminally Ill. Metaphors in Computer Terminology, or Who Is More Human, the Programmer or the Computer?, Educational Technology, 2, pp. 27-29, (1984); Phillips D.C., The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Many Faces of Constructivism, Educational Researcher, 24, 7, pp. 5-12, (1995); Pinch T.J., Bijker W.E., The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit Each Other, The Social Construction of Technological Systems, pp. 17-50, (1989); Ropohl G., Eine Systemtheorie der Technik, (1979); Ropohl G., What Technologists Know and How They Know It, Second International Science & Technology Education Conference on Technology Education for a Changing Future: Theory, Policy and Practice, (1996); Solomon J., Aikenhead G.S., STS Education. International Perspectives on Reform, (1994); Slezak P., Sociology of Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Education: Part I, Science & Education, 3, 3, pp. 265-294, (1994); Sutton C.R., Metaphorical Imagery: A Means of Coping with Complex and Unfamiliar In-Formation in Science, Durham and Newcastle Research Review, 46, 9, pp. 216-222, (1981); Toulmin S., Foreword, Rethinking Knowledge. Reflections Across the Disciplines, (1995); De Vries M.J., Science, Technology and society: A Methodological Perspective, Second International Science & Technology Education Conference on Technology Education for a Changing Future: Theory, Policy and Practice, (1996); Wiedemann P.M., Deutungsmusteranalyse, Qualitative Forschung in der Psychologie, (1985); Vogel S., New Science, New Nature: The Habermas-Marcuse Debate Revisited, Technology and the Politics of Knowledge, pp. 23-42, (1995); Yager R.E., The Science, Technology Society Movement, (1993)
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Article
Scopus