The Development of Educational Computing Policy in the Victorian School System, 1976–1985

Abstract

This paper is a critical historical review of the development of school computing policy primarily in the Victorian secondary state school system. As Victoria is linked to the national computer education program, relevant developments at that level are also explored. Computer technology is conceptualised as a social phenomenon and policy development as both a historical and political process. Policy development is located within the context of the development of microcomputer technology and of teacher relationships to that technology. In the early stages of policy development, the rudiments of a critical social perspective on technology are apparent. In the Victorian policy, this perspective became marginalised during the policy process. The orientation towards a broad social concept of technology was displaced by an instrumental framework in which computers were conceived as an unproblematic set of tools and associated techniques.