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Don’t Fear the Cyborg: Toward Embracing Posthuman and Feminist Cyborg Discourses in Teacher Education and Educational Technology Research

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Abstract

I argue that larger cultural concerns about human—technology interactions are seldom addressed in teacher education. This article seeks to trace cultural anxieties about technology by addressing the long-standing trope of human versus machine; examine how these concerns are manifested and addressed (or not) in popular culture, educational technology research, and teacher education; and propose how, in a counterintuitive turn, we might begin to use what has been called cyborg anthropology, feminist cyborg discourse, and feminist posthuman discourse to address those fears in a world where human—technology relationships are increasingly symbiotic.

Résumé

Je pose au départ que les préoccupations culturelles générales au sujet des interactions entre l’être humain et les technologies sont rarement traitées dans la formation des enseignants. Cet article trace les inquiétudes culturelles au sujet des technologies en analysant le trope qui oppose depuis longtemps l’être humain et la machine; il analyse également les façons dont ces preoccupations se manifestent et sont traitées (ou non) dans la culture populaire, la recherche sur les technologies éducatives et la formation des enseignants. D’une façon qui pourrait sembler contrintuitive, je propose de commencer à utiliser ce que d’aucuns appellent l’anthropologie cyborg, le discours cyborg féministe ou le postmodernisme féministe pour affronter ces craintes dans un monde où les liens entre l’être humain et les technologies sont de plus en plus symbiotiques.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Washington State University, 331 Cleveland Hall, Pullman, WA, 99164-2132, USA

    Shannon C. Gleason

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  1. Shannon C. Gleason
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Correspondence to Shannon C. Gleason.

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Gleason, S.C. Don’t Fear the Cyborg: Toward Embracing Posthuman and Feminist Cyborg Discourses in Teacher Education and Educational Technology Research. Can J Sci Math Techn 14, 120–134 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2014.903320

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