The Ideological Construction of a New Form of Digital Exclusion: Computer Science as Latin or Total Deus Ex Machina?

This paper offers a critical analysis of the UK coalition Government's educational computing policies. It argues that such policies must be viewed in relation to the broader ideological intent underpinning their development and the neo liberal orientation that seeks to further privatise and marketise education. In examining the related justificatory discourse, it is argued that the ideological origins of policy direction are masked through the use of selective and questionable 'evidence', which facilitates the further encroachment of vested industry interests. Furthermore, the symbolic re-presentation and repositioning of technology in schools through the disapplication of ICT Programmes of Study and a new emphasis on the teaching of computer science, not only diverts the purpose of education and educational technology further toward the needs of industry but may also lead to computer science being constructed as an elitist and selective subject. This is likely to have profound implications in terms of equality, with schools, individuals and groups who have less economic, social and cultural capitals being most at risk of a new form of digital exclusion. Similarly, in Higher Education, policy changes are in danger of excluding disadvantaged groups. Here too, technology is becoming an increasingly central tenet in the drive toward new forms of privatisation and marketisation. Educational technology therefore is an important site of struggle, where there is both the need and opportunities to challenge the increasingly prevalent profit and loss motives of business, and to also promote wider values associated with equality and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]