Re]examining the Role of Technology in Education Through a Deliberative Decision-Making Approach: In the Quest Towards Democratic Education in South African Schools

Abstract

The perpetual advancements in modern educational technologies have rapidly evolved and altered the way students and educators communicate inside and outside a school classroom. In some schools in South Africa today, where ‘liberal educators’ are considered to be more adaptable to cultural renewal, accompanied by changing beliefs, ideals and practices in the social environment, their more conservative ‘authoritarian’ counterparts in stark contrast would be less forthcoming to this changing social life. The authors consider deliberation as a decision-making approach in the quest to achieving democratic education in South African schools through the use of educational technologies. In this regard, they examine the role of educators and students’ voices, and explore the use of Facebook as a pedagogical practice in cultivating democratic education.