Technē and technology: young men, literacy and the facility to write

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the fetishisation of computer technologies in education, the older sense of technology as pertaining to skill, what the Greeks termed ‘technē’, seems to have slipped from view. Technology is generally equated with the object itself rather than the facility to use it. A skill such as writing, for example, is rarely considered a technology and yet it is a vital tool for communication that aids understanding. Writing is also a technology that is framed in particular ways in relation to boys and young men. With constant concerns over ‘boys’ literacy’, it is generally viewed as a ‘feminine’ activity. Drawing on interviews with a group of young men – all proficient writers reflecting on their schooling – this article examines their perspectives on writing and broader engagement with different technologies. In particular, it considers how writing by hand can promote forms of embodied cognition and the affordances this provides.