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UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North2^eeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 OPENING TECHNOLOGY DISCOURSES TO DIFFERENCE: A RHIZOANALYSIS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Patricia Ann O'Riley, B.Ed., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1999 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Patti Lather, Co-Advisor Co-Advisor College of Education Dr. William Taylor, Co-Advisor Co-Advisor College of Education Dr. Robert Donmoyer DMI Number: 9931664 UMI Microform 9931664 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. Tliis microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT This research project was an effort to seek a cultural politics of difference within the two areas of education claiming 'technology^ as an area of study: technology education and educational technology. This study also troubled the practice of doing research, in particular, the 'right to know', collecting and analyzing data', and the possibility of ethics from within a professional frame of reference. One segment of the study was with technology education high school students and their teacher in British Columbia, Canada, and another segment was with educational technology graduate students at a university in New Jersey, USA. The co-participants, including a colleague from Kenya, and I examined how technology discourses in education reverberate with the language and practices of the dominant culture, which foreground commodity production, consumption and 'high' technologies, silencing and/ or ignoring indigenous and other non-western epistemologies and technologies. Paying particular attention to the languaging of gender, culture and environment in technology curricula, we worked to affirm difference. What appeared to be or were identified as contradictions within and between cultures were recognized and validated. We worked toward an intercultural conversation, a flow between and among different knowledge communities, concerned that our work not become another multicultural 'hybrid/ an accumulation of indigenous epistemologies for the West. Methodologically, I explored the possibilities of doing research which was not primarily about 'knowing/ 'other' in order to study, act upon, validate or transform. I thought against myself as researcher in an effort to engage in a more respectful and mutual conversation in the 'regeneration' of knowledge, rather than 'generating' more and better for the western knowledge project. m Dedicated to indigenous people around the world who are reviving their culture, language and spirituality who are reclaiming their land, voice and traditions who are finding ways of overcoming the effects of colonization as well all those who have been marginalized by the ways of the West IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would Like to thank Patti Lather for her creative and courageous work in research methodology. She has opened doors for so many. Bill Taylor is a breath of fresh air in educational technology, moving the conversation to include body and spirit. I thank Bob Donmoyer for being a gentle man, a gatekeeper who encourages different ways of doing scholarly writing. mutindi ndunda, of the Mkamba community of Kenya, my sister and co-irritant, thank you for being a strong, brilliant and passionate woman, who fights every minute of every day to make this world more equitable, more caring. You hold my hand, you push me to the edges of my knowing, as we journey together. Annette and Noel Gough, thank you for your love and encouragement and your invitation to lecture in Australia. You have always been there. Kate and Simon, thank you for welcoming me into your home. Peter Fensham, you will always be a special person to me, to so many. I would like to thank my long-time friend, Len Millis, for his belief and me and encouragement to return to school. Thank you for your love, your friendship, your advice, and for finding the leak on the houseboat. Jane and Catie, your love has been felt across the miles. Peter Cole, my partner and friend, thank you for your love, your delightful spirit, and for bringing me home to the land, into the Stl'atl'imx community, and on a journey to find my own indigenous roots. Lee O'Riley, my daughter, thank you for just being you. Even as a little girl, you showedme how to love and how to be loved. Chris Babcock and Lori Quance, my son and daughter, thank you for coming back into my Life. Thank you for your love. Daniel Delaquis, my first bom, I think of you often, and with affection: o:na. This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship. I would particularly Hke to thank Michael Hodgson. VI VITA Bom November 18,1947—Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada EDUCATION 1992 M.A. Education The University of British Columbia 1991 B.Ed. Secondary Education The University of British Columbia 1989 Diploma in Industrial Education Teacher Education British Columbia Institute of Technology WORK HISTORY 1986 - 88 Canada Safety Officer/ Labour Standards Officer Labour Canada 1984 - 86 Industrial Relations Officer/ Human Rights Officer British Columbia Ministry of Labour 1982 - 84 Provincial Factory Inspector British Columbia Ministry of Labour 1979 - 82 Planchecker / Building Inspector District of the Municipality of Surrey, BC City of Vernon, BC 1976 - 79 Residential Housing Designer Nu-West Development Corporation, Surrey, BC Freelance 1973 - 74 Architectural Draftsperson Bel-Con Engineering Ltd., Belleville, ON vu TEACHING EXPERIENCE 1998-present Lecturer Massey University Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand 1997-1998 Instructor William Paterson University Wayne, NJ, USA 1996 duly) Visiting Lecturer The University of Victoria Victoria, BC, Canada 1992 -1994 Graduate T eaching Associate The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA 1977 -1979 Architectural Drafting Instructor Douglas College New Westminster, BC, Canada SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS 1994 - 95 D octoral Fellowship Renewal Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada 1992 - 93 Doctoral Fellowship Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada 1992 University Graduate Fellowship (declined) The University of British Columbia 1992 Overseas Research Scholarship (declined) University of London 1991 Dr. M axwell C am eron M em orial M edal & Prize The University of British Columbia (highest standing in graduating class) 1990 British Council Grant British H igh Commission 1989 Summer School Scholarship The University of British Columbia vm PUBLICATIONS O'Riley. P. (1996). A different storytelling of Technology Education curriculum re-visions: A storytelling of difference. Journal o f Technology Education, 7(2), 28-39. O’Riley, P. & & Scott, D. (1996). Psycho logics: Techno bits and desire bytes in the worlds of virtuality & analysis. Australian Educational Researcher, 23(3), 97- 107. O'Riley, P. (1992). BC technology education curriculum: Appropriate for all students? Status of Women Journal, 23-26. O'Riley, P. (1991). Technological literacy: In search of a paradigm. VIEW, Journal of the BC Technology Education Association,14-17. 1 , HELD OF STUDY Major Field: Education IX TABLE OF CONTENTS D edication iv Acknowledgements v V ita vii Plateau 1001: Pream ble 1 Plateau 1002: S o . 6 One true story revisited 8 Technology discourses as manifest manners 11 Technology discourses as storytelling practice 14 S'S-stuttering as cartographic gesture 16 Rhizomatics: writing plateaux 17 Plateau 1003: Re:Mapping 22 Situating the geography of the study 22 Theories of diEerence 26 Rhizoanalysis 29 Nomadics 32 Rhizoanalysis as minorizing majority discourse 34 A critical look at rhizoanalysis 36 Technology of empire and manifest manners 38 Rhizoanalysis meets trickster discourse: Canis rhizomatmus 43 Plateau 1004: M esa M orph Ing M ethodology 48 Methodological framings 48 Research Design Prior ethnography 52 The sites for this study 54 A. Technology education: Co-participants, entrée and field relations 54 M ethods 57 B. Educational technology: