Technological culture: Its representations and potential for theorizing technology education

Abstract

In this article, technological culture is considered through a prism of comparative analysis as a way of contributing to a theoretical understanding of technology education. Two major representations of technological culture are the technocratic and humanistic approaches. Contrasting Russia and the West (with some emphasis on England) provides an opportunity to highlight the differences in these approaches. In the Russian context, the concept of technological culture has a very positive connotation. It is considered as an important concept in theorizing technology education and as a means of humanizing technology and incorporating broad sociocultural issues. In Western countries, on the other hand, technological culture is not associated with the inclusion of humanistic understanding or moral values in technical phenomena. Technocratic ideology, instrumentalism and rationality, and the view that technology represents a threat to humanity are often associated with technological culture.