Beyond technicism: towards ‘Being’ and ‘knowing in an intra- active pedagogy

Abstract

In this paper I consider the theme of technology and its influence on how we come to know possibilities in an increasingly fluid, uncertain world. The argument is made that we are not always aware of how technology, linked with the project of modernity, linear progress, certainty and the scientific method, has contributed to an overly instrumental and technicist view of the complex endeavour of early childhood education in contemporary times. If modernity has produced categorizations and separation through binary divides such as theory/practice, adult/child, individual/group, matter/discourse then the project of postmodernity blurs these divisions and draws attention back to their complexity. Understanding how the overarching mood of technology has contributed to these divides and their part in supporting hegemonic technicist views of practice, leads us to question how might this be turned? More specifically I consider alternative views, involving digital technologies and pedagogical documentation that afford new spaces for ‘border crossing’ (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p. 23), as a means for reflecting and revealing our taken for granted assumptions.