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Excavating the meaning of information and communication technology use amongst South African university students : a critical discourse analysis
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Brown, Cheryl |
| Copyright Year | 2011 |
| Abstract | This thesis examines what Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) mean to South African university students and how these meanings form the basis of technological identities. It explores the relationships between these meanings and identities and the possibilities and opportunities that they create or limit. The motivation for this research arose from a national survey of students' access to and use of ICTs for learning within the higher education sector (Czerniewicz and Brown 2009b, p44). In this research project, students' disposition towards ICT was overwhelmingly positive and the majority made use of ICTs in some way for their learning. On the surface, it appeared that students thought ICTs were essential, and a positive benefit to their learning. However, this thesis looks beyond what students are saying about ICTs to how they are saying it, in a bid to determine what underlies these seemingly positive dispositions. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was carried out on responses to open-ended survey questions from 807 students drawing on Fairclough's dimensions of discourse (Fairclough 2001) and Gee's concepts of D(d)iscourses and Conversations (Gee 2005) to determine the different technological identities expressed by university students'. Four key concepts – meaning, identity, power and context – form the central tools of the analytical process. The range of Discourses uncovered in this study shows that whilst students are adopting the positive expressions of the digital elite with regards to ICTs their Discourses are complex and often contradictory, reinforcing power, domination and interests of certain students at the expense of others. Common technological identities were associated with the dominant Discourses of Globalization, Learning, Determinism and Liberation which were shown to have a bearing on students' current and potential future uses of ICTs for learning. The study is located in the realm of social studies of Information Systems (IS) and adopts a critical theory lens. Meanings of ICTs are examined within the historical and cultural context of students’ experiences. In doing this I critique the opinion that technology is automatically a necessary and good tool for societal and educational change and seek to use the knowledge created from the research as a catalyst for change by giving voice to marginalized student groups |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/10213/thesis_com_2011_brown_c.pdf?sequence=1 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
