Technological culture: Its representations and potential for theorizing technology education

In this article, technological culture is considered through a prism of comparative analysis as a way of contributing to a theoretical understanding of technology education. Two majorrepresentations of technological culture are thetechnocratic and humanistic approaches. Contrasting Russia and the West (with some emphasis on England) provides an opportunity to highlight thedifferences in these approaches. In the Russian context, the concept of technological culture has a very positive connotation. It is considered as an important concept in theorizing technology education and as a means of humanizing technology and incorporating broad sociocultural issues. In Western countries, on the other hand, technological culture is not associated with the inclusion of humanistic understanding or moral valuesin technical phenomena. Technocratic ideology, instrumentalism and rationality, and the view that technology represents a threat to humanity areoften associated with technological culture. Although these views characterize technological culture in very different ways, they illustrate theuniversal quest to identify key features for incorporation into technology education. The authorargues that technology education should be valueinclusive, should create possibilities for reflection, and should overcome the purposive‐rational approach to technology. Copyright © 2003 Taylor & Francis.