Religious ideologies of minimal computing: negotiating digital technology in religious nationalist education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using resistance to digital technologies in religious nationalist public high schools in Israel as a frame for discussing minimal computing, this paper explores how socio-religious ideologies foster minimal technological practices. Based on interviews with administrators, homeroom teachers, and religious and secular content teachers from three schools near an urban center, the study explores how multiple mandates to provide religious, nationalist, and modern education shape teachers’ educational approaches to digital technologies. The paper argues that an approach that segregates technologies to secular domains disentangles digital devices from religious subjectivity; one that allocates time for ‘profane’ digital technologies creates discontinuity between digital practices and religious educational aims; and one that integrates technologies into religious practice fosters a symbiotic digital–analog religiosity. By highlighting the role of religious ideology in shaping limited technological approaches, the paper explores how constraints on teachers’ practices stem not only from resource-driven limitations but from minimal technological will.