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Ethics and the technology curriculum
conference contribution
posted on 2006-05-08, 10:23 authored by Terry Liddament'Values' in the technology curriculum are usually put in technical or commerical terms. This can lead to a conflation, between commercial/industrial domains, and the pedagogic domains which is frequently unresolved in curriculum literature, and which can manifest itself in a confusion between insturmental and intrinsic values.
Commercial artefacts are generally taken as having instrumental value only, ie they are typically valued only as means to further ends. In addition, if the artefact ceases to be commercially viable then the processes and skills contributing to its production are similarly otiose unless they can be turned to the production of other artefacts which again render them of instrumental value only.
This paper seeks to clarify the distinctions between instrinsic and instrumental value in relation to the technological curriculum, and argues that the values that should be identified and explicated are often instrinsic and not merely instrumental. The techno-scientific framework itself, it is argued, is impoverished through a tacit rendering of value systems in instrumentalist terms. Active pedagogic engagement through the technology curriculum is seen as an essential corrective towards a viable techno ethics.
History
School
- Design
Research Unit
- IDATER Archive
Pages
21128 bytesCitation
LIDDAMENT, T., 1995. Ethics and the technology curriculum. IDATER 1995 Conference, Loughborough: Loughborough UniversityPublisher
© Loughborough UniversityPublication date
1995Notes
This is a conference paper.Language
- en