Decoding Technology Acceptance in Education: A Cultural Studies Contribution

The process of integrating technology into education often overlooks that technology is a sign; it is not a neutral message conveyor, but rather a material artefact placed into a context inevitably subject to culture. In an original and novel combination, Decoding Technology Acceptance in Education brings together two academic domains not previously pursued together, yet which diverge in many ways: cultural studies and technology acceptance studies.

Drawing on empirical data, Stockman demonstrates that teachers activate a meaning-making process through encoding and decoding signs around technology as an artefact of culture, and as a result their acceptance behaviour and decisions rely on the dynamics of the cultural whole to which they belong. In this study, technology acceptance is revisited as an issue of cultural negotiation; the common approach, which provides an instrumental view on technology as a neutral tool, is insufficient for the topic of technology acceptance. Rather than proposing yet another model of technology acceptance, Decoding Technology Acceptance in Education offers a renewed frame of mind and the conclusions it provides are of vital importance to the theoretical and practical advancement of technology acceptance studies, as well as to the practical integration of technology into education.

Providing original empirical evidence for the influence of culture on educational decision-making, the book raises awareness for the importance of cultural research in areas where it has been under-considered. This book will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students engaged in the study of technology acceptance and technology use in education, as well as those interested in cultural studies.

Caroline Stockman is Senior Lecturer in Education Studies at the University of Winchester, UK.