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Towards a transformative epistemology of Technology education

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14 Feb 2023

Towards a transformative epistemology of Technology education

Technology Education offers an authentic and invaluable range of skills, knowledge, 
capabilities, contexts and ways of thinking for learners in the 21st century. However, it is 
recognised to occupy a comparatively less defined and more fragile curricular position than 
associated, but longer established, subjects such as Mathematics and Science. While 
recognising that no single factor lies behind such a condition, this paper draws upon thinking 
in the philosophy of technology, technology education and the ontology of artefacts to argue 
that transformation may be considered as a epistemic source for technology in a similar way to 
‘proof’ within Mathematics and ‘interpretation’ within Science. Encapsulating technology’s 
intimate relationship with materials, it is ultimately argued that the transformation of a 
technical artefact from an ill-defined into a well-defined ontological state constitutes a prime 
source of technological knowledge for pupils.

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