Abstract:

The mid to late 1990s contrasts with the 1980s, when the introduction of computers into education was aimed only at specific learners or disciplines, and the past decade, when the patterns of use of internet based learning became generally accepted. In the mid to late 1990s the introduction of a variety of technologies occurred over a very short period and was underwritten by methodologies that were largely technical and managerial. People who had not “embraced technology were termed ‘resisters’” (Riffel & Levin, 1997: 56), as was critical analyses of ICTs in education.

Although critical theory is generally associated with left-wing and radical sociology, the past few years has witnessed its application to areas beyond its general area of application. One of the areas of critical studies is critical discourse analysis (CDA).

The application of critical discourse analysis (CDA) has seen the rise to dominance of Michael Foucault and Norman Fairclough. Foucault is used mainly as posthumous reference work in the form of Foucaultian accounts (Deacon,2006:178), a Foucaultian approach (Nicoll & Fejes, in Fejes & Nicoll, 2008: 5) or as “little tool boxes” (Foucault in Keevey, 2005: 6). Fairclough, in contrast to Foucault, has developed his framework over the past few decades, to a point where he is able to comment on what CDA “is” and “what it is not” (Fairclough, 2010, 10-11). Fairclough’s framework, to an extent, has its origins in Foucault’s work, but differs in that it has a more specific focus on the analysis of text, language from a linguistics perspective (Fairclough,2010). Fairclough has contrasted his work with Foucault’s and other theorists, including Sinclair, Coulthard, Labov, Franshel, Potter and Wetherell (Fairclough, 1992:37- 61), and more recently (Fairclough 2010: 301-36) with Marx.

Both Foucault and Fairclough have schools of thought developed around their work.

The paper proposes to present a summary of the application of critical management theory to ICTs. The paper proposes to then contrast the frameworks of Foucault and Fairclough, thereafter an analysis will be done on information that emanates from the analysis to the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education for a decade starting in the mid to late 1990s. The paper will focus on international literature on the use of critical discourse analysis applied to ICTs in education, as well as literature used as readings for an honours course in educational management over a ten year period from 1995 to 2005.

A critical analysis of application of ICTs in education provides an account of not only what the introduction of ICTs did it also reveals what Foucault (1970 in Paras, 2006:23) called the episteme, the “dark knowledge” that underlies articulation of the processes that underlie the introduction of ICTs in education.

Keywords:

Critical management research, critical discourse analysis, ICT in education, Foucault.