Is technology a threat to education? : the contribution of George Parkin Grant

Abstract

The writings of George Parkin Grant (1918-1988), a Canadian political philosopher, were analyzed according to his view of the relationship between technology and education. Grant's life was summarized to provide a context for understanding his ideas. His definition of technology - the co-penetration of knowing and making -- was conceptually analyzed and placed within a reading of his work that ascertained a progressive development of this definition over three distinct phases in his academic career. Grant's implicit vision of education, grounded in Christian and Platonic epistemological assumptions, was explicated and unified around his idea of the interdependence of knowing and loving. From a comparison with John Dewey's concepts of technology and education, Grant and Dewey were found to be in substantial agreement concerning the nature of modern technology, but in profound disagreement over the meaning of an educative experience. Grant's qualified, affirmative response to the question of this thesis -- Is technology a threat to education? -- was found insightful in helping to clarify some foundational issues in educational research. As well, it provided another perspective within which one can begin to assess the general impact of technology on education.