The politics of the new courseware: resisting the real subsumption of asynchronous educational technology

Abstract

Distance learning is revolutionizing large sways of higher education. The promise of enormous cost savings in educational delivery systems is leading to a “real subsumption” of educational labor. The displacement of traditional craft activity with new (capital intensive) technology requires that market-centered goals (of capital accumulation) supplant earlier student-centered priorities. Educators are no longer the ‘peak coordinators’ in this ‘Brave New Educational Workplace’. Increasingly, they are minders of software and hardware delivery systems that are developed and delivered by other specialists. This loss of control and autonomy frequently results in an educator feeling powerless when confronted with changes that seem beyond their control. In contrast to this ‘politics of resignation’, this paper explores a range of tactics for engaging and re-appropriating the new courseware for student-centered purposes. An action-research study was used to elucidate a range of political strategies deployed during the introduction of distance learning technology in a large U.S. urban university. In this study, the distance learning workplace is conceived as a “contested terrain”, where protagonists struggle over what is produced and how it is produced. The analysis offers educators a route beyond passive acquiescence and technological inevitability. With a proper appreciation of the specific historical, cultural, technical and political context, educators may temper, divert and even re-appropriate the new courseware to ends other than those of the market.