Abstract

A main function of education has always been citizenship formation. However, today's main educational aim is centered on a neo-liberal economic motivation, which has education constructed around the dominant economic reality of capitalism. In this context, the major aim of education is to increase productivity, which is in keeping with capitalistic production, not with responsible citizenship. Computer technology and technical literacy courses are on the rise in primary and secondary schools because the public is being convinced that this is an inevitable road to the future. Our society tends to venerate technology as a neutral construct. This pacifies people from taking a critical role in determining how technology should be used. It is the result of technocratic ideology. This thesis aims to understand this phenomenon and come up with a more viable version of the usage of computer technology in primary and secondary schools and an adequate definition of critical technical literacy that does not comply purely with technocratic interests. It is based on a comprehensive literature review on the historical-structural form of education in technocratic capitalistic societies and an assessment of the arguments set forth by techno-advocates and techno-critiques on computer technology and technical literacy in classrooms. It concludes that a critical technical literacy is vital for ensuring that education does not continue to perpetuate socio-economic stratification and instead is democratic with the goal of developing responsible citizens