This book addresses notions of critique in Design and Technology
Education, facilitating a conceptual and practical understanding of
critique, and enabling both a personal and pedagogical application to
practice.
Critique can be a frame of mind, and may be related to a technology,
product, process or material. In a holistic sense, critique is an
element of a person's technological literacy, a fundamentally critical
disposition brought to bear on all things technological. This book
provides a reasoned conceptual framework within which to develop
critique, and examples of applying the framework to Design and
Technology Education. The book builds on The Future of Technology
Education published by Springer as the first in the series Contemporary
Issues in Technology Education.
In the 21st century, an 'age of knowledge', students are called upon to
access, analyse and evaluate constantly changing information to support
personal and workplace decision making and on-going innovation. A
critical Design and Technology Education has an important role to play,
providing students with opportunities to integrate economic,
environmental, social and technological worlds as they develop and
refine their technological literacy. Through the design and development
of technology, they collaborate, evaluate and critically apply
information, developing cognitive and manipulative skills appropriate to
the 21st century. Critique goes beyond review or analysis, addressing
positive and negative technological development. This book discusses and
applies this deeper perspective, identifying a clear role for critique
in the context of Design and Technology Education.
