Professor Ivor Goodson - Computer Literacy as Ideology

One of the most prominent policies in schools throughout the industrialized world today is the rapid introduction of computers. The most common rationale for this policy is the concept of "computer literacy". It is a concept, however, which is poorly defined and delineated, and which lacks a clarity of purpose. It may, in fact, be a form of ideology.

The justificatory arguments for computers in classrooms are primarily vocational or practical. They are based on assumptions that computers will be common in the workplace of the future, or that in fact they are soon going to be "everywhere". The more purely pedagogical arguments are secondary: that learning about computers is a worthwhile experience in and of itself, and that computers can be useful productivity tools for other academic work.

Drawing upon empirical evidence from an evaluation of computer use in two Canadian high schools, this paper shows how a critical treatment of computer literacy as ideology raises important questions about the computerization of education. It suggests that educators should question whether they have simply taken the ideology of computer literacy at face value, and whether this almost universal policy has received the critical attention it deserves.

Conceptualizing Computer Literacy

One of the most prominent policy trends in schools throughout the industrialized world today is the rapid introduction of computers into classrooms. Governments in Canada, as elsewhere, have spent billions of taxpayers' dollars on educational computing systems (see Becker, 1990; Pelgrum & Plomp, 1991). Perhaps the most common rationale for this flood of hardware and software is the concept of "computer literacy". In 1981, when Ontario announced a major government initiative to introduce computers into schools, for instance, the Minister of Education stated that "one of the major goals that education must add to its list of purposes, is computer literacy" (Stephenson, 1981, p. 7).

The concept of computer literacy, however, is poorly defined and delineated. In this paper, we will contend that the vagueness surrounding this concept is not entirely accidental, nor the mere result of confusion among its proponents. It may, instead, result from the fact that “computer literacy” is a largely ideological concept, whose fuzziness and internal contradictions frequently serve to mask the social, political, and educational agendas its proponents. A critical treatment of computer literacy as an ideology may illuminate this pervasive trend in educational policy. In what follows, we will offer such a critique in brief, along with some empirical evidence from a recent Canadian study (Goodson, Mangan, & Rhea, 1991). That evidence will show how the ideology of computer literacy is encountered, embodied, and embraced in the practices and beliefs of students and teachers. We will suggest that educators interested in the developmental aspects of schooling need to take a closer look at the potential costs, both monetary and human, of a passive acceptance of the ideology of computer literacy.

Computer Literacy as Ideology

Conceptualizing Computer Literacy

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