© 2003 Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
Current Issues in Comparative Education, Vol.6(1)  3 

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION 
 

Technology For All? 
The impact of technology on knowledge production and educational development 

  
 
As modern technology is rapidly changing the nature of knowledge production, it is 
becoming increasingly important in the field of educational development to examine 
whether, as a result, these changes are fostering inclusion or creating greater disparity. 
In the "Information Age," technological innovation, theoretically, should broaden access 
to education and encourage sustainable development. Many in the educational 
development field ascribe a transformative role to technology, regarding the ability to 
acquire and use "knowledge" as critical to developing human capital. Others question 
whether technology is being used as a panacea for complex educational development 
problems, questioning who is generating "knowledge," for whose benefit, and with what 
future implications. 
 
This issue of CICE examines the salient matters involving knowledge and technology 
that concern international educational development. The present articles raise evocative 
questions about values placed on various types of "knowledge," how "knowledge" is 
evaluated by learning institutions, and how these various ways of viewing "knowledge" 
shape policy. 
 
Among policymakers in economically developing countries, such as Brazil, a dichotomy 
exists where "knowledge" is defined either in terms of market value, or in terms of social 
development. The proposed National System of Evaluation of Higher Education 
(SINEAS) stimulates discussion on the priorities of higher education. Canen's 
"Institutional Evaluation, Knowledge and Multiculturalism: Some ways ahead in 
Brazilian higher education" illustrates how such policies seem to support a product-
oriented approach to education and knowledge production. In "Computers in Ghanaian 
Secondary Schools: Where does equality come in?" Mfum-Mensah discusses how weak 
policy design results in failure to reach those who need to benefit most from technology 
in education. Mfum-Mensah examines Ghana's educational policy in historical context 
to question whether technology will exacerbate or ameliorate social disparities. 
 
The notion of technology as a great equalizer is also explored on levels other than socio-
economic disparity. In "Student-faculty power/knowledge relations: The implications of 
the Internet in the College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University" Al-Harthi and 
Ginsburg look at the power dynamic between two groups of participants, questioning 
the extent to which technology can transform this dynamic. Does the "Internet culture" 
challenge traditional notions of authority/knowledge and pedagogy, or does culture 
shape Internet use? What happens when the two are ideologically different? Shin and 
Cho's "The Culturally Situated Process of Knowledge Production in a Virtual 
Community: A case of hypertext analysis from a university's ClassWeb discussion 
boards" also examines the dynamics of power and knowledge. Their article questions 
whether mainstream uses of technology in higher education exacerbate "disability" in 
the broadest sense of the term. The definition of "disability" in this context is non-native 
English-speakers in English-only virtual learning environments. The article 



Editorial Introduction 

   December 17, 2003 4 

demonstrates how certain types of communication and literacy are favored over others 
and, as a result, exclude certain students from engaging in the activity of knowledge 
production. "Distance, Disability and the Commodification of Education: Web 
accessibility and the construction of knowledge" by Foley analyzes the ideologies 
surrounding various types of learners, and web accessibility. Like Canen's article, Foley 
looks at the "marketizing" of disability in online instruction. 
 
As demonstrated in this collection of articles, the complexities of how knowledge and 
authority are negotiated resonate throughout educational development policy and 
practice. This issue of CICE questions whether the current direction of policy and 
practices related to technology