Social invisibility is a belief supported by cultural critic Hooks (2000), among others, which states that the poor, particularly in the United States of America, are rendered socially “invisible” by a number of factors and cultural institutions. Some factors include the consumerism, conspicuous consumption, racism, and literacy (both traditional and cultural). Institutions such as the educational system, government, popular media, capitalism, and religion contribute to this situation in various ways.
Published in Chapter:
Developing a Socially Responsible Approach to IT Research
Justin Marquis (Indiana University, USA)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-865-9.ch064
Abstract
There is an ever-widening gap between the social classes in American society reflected in wages, living conditions, health care and access to technology. This chapter argues that a hidden agenda underlies much current educational technology research which, intentionally or unintentionally, reinforces the societal power structures which support this inequitable access. In order to demonstrate this subtle discrimination some of the work of well-known educational technology researcher Larry Cuban is examined in order to highlight the ways in which his choices of research sites and methodology help to perpetuate the digital divide through generalization and a failure to acknowledge the existence of persons who lack technology access in their homes. After the critique a methodology for conducting “socially responsible” educational technology research that employs a postmodern critical perspective to mitigate the discriminatory factors present in much contemporary research will be proposed.