Technology Refusal and the Organizational Culture of Schools

Analyses of the deployment of technology in schools usually note its lack of impact on the day-to-day values and practices of teachers, administrators, and students. This is generally construed as an implementation failure, or as resulting from a temperamental shortcoming on the part of teachers or technologists. It is predicated on the tacit assumption that the technology itself is value-free. This paper proposes that technology is never neutral: that its values and practices must always either support or subvert those of the organization into which it is placed; and that the failures of technology to alter the look-and-feel of schools more generally results from a mismatch between the values of school organization and those embedded within the contested technology. THE CULTURE OF SCHOOLS For nearly a century outsiders have been trying to introduce technologies into high school classrooms, with remarkably consistent results. After proclaiming the potential of the new tools to rescue the classroom from the dark ages and usher in an age of efficiency and enlightenment, technologists find to