Educational Technology: A Postdigital Social Tradition

Abstract

AbstractThe dissolution of the campus during the early stages of the current pandemic provides a compelling case study of how Higher Education responds to emergencies. Initially, digital education was perceived as a lifeline and educators spoke of a ‘pivot online’. What followed was an undignified stumble into remote teaching. Social theories of innovation suggest that rapid technological change is simply a matter of choice and organisations can make rapid and strategic changes when required. I argue that talk of pivots and innovation is misleading and deflects enquiries from an important reason for academic resilience: teaching as tradition. Drawing on early forays into the importance of imitation by Gabriel Tarde, I contribute to efforts to rediscover his microsociological approach and link this to modern evolutionary research. By using a sociocultural evolutionary lens to analyse 102 courses in a business school, I demonstrate the persistence and resilience of teaching traditions and the use of imitation, rather than top-down direction. Using a phylogenetic analysis, I show how flexible imitation of traditional practice created a resilient, but unplanned, response to crisis. I explain how these results can inform resilience-building in Higher Education, by supporting the flexible imitation of teaching traditions. The research also advocates the use of cultural evolution, drawing on the inspiration of Tarde, in postdigital educational research.