Digital Dissonances: Structuring Absences in National Discourses on Equity and Educational Technologies

This study traces discursive formations surrounding educational technology, equity, and inclusion that have emerged or have been amplified through national policies and initiatives in the U.S., including the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) research grant program, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Ed Tech state funding program, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the 2005 National Educational Technology Plan. Using critical discourse analysis and symptomatic readings, we examine language embedded in national initiatives in relation to educational technology to explore how these policies and initiatives address technology equity. Our analysis underscores the ongoing tendency of national discourses about educational technology to support universal and undifferentiated approaches to educational technology integration. In contrast to these national perspectives we advocate for sustaining interventions that promote contextual definitions of success and achievement rooted in the values, discourses, and resources of community and consider the redistribution of resources in ways that accommodate the complex historical and cultural factors that come into play when defining and addressing equity.