Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Recolonising the Digital Natives

The Politics of Childhood and Technology from Blair to Gove

  • Chapter
Thatcher’s Grandchildren?

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood ((PSHC))

  • 231 Accesses

Abstract

In the late 1990s, as the World Wide Web was being presented as heralding a new ‘Information Society’, children’s reportedly intuitive capacity to use new technologies began to provide a new set of metaphors for talking about adult–child relationships. In this context, the now familiar ideas of the ‘digital native’ and the ‘digital immigrant’ were born, which presented children as natural citizens of a new world order and adults as analogue trespassers, trying to keep up. Even shiny new Prime-Ministers-In-Waiting professed themselves daunted by children’s capacity to enter into this new world:

Ask me my three main priorities for Government, and I tell you: education, education and education. The first wonder of the world is the mind of a child. I sometimes sit reading a paper or watching TV, and look up to see my children at a computer, and marvel at what they can do; using that computer as easily as we read a book. (Tony Blair, speech to Labour Party Annual conference, 1996)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Anyon, J. (2005). Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arthur, C. (2001). ‘The books interview: The teens who took over the net’. Independent, 21 July.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. (2003). ‘The Teacher’s Soul and the Terrors of Performativity’. Journal of Education Policy 18(2): 215–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, M. (1989). Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • BIS/DCMS (Department for Business Innovation Skills/Department for Culture Media and Sport). (2009). Digital Britain. Norwich: The Stationery Office. Retrieved from www.tsoshop.co.uk.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chadderton, C. (2012). ‘UK Secondary Schools under Surveillance: the Implications for Race. A Critical Race and Butlerian Analysis’. Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies 10(1). http://www.jceps.com/PDFs/10–1–06.pdf.

  • Chadderton, C. (2013). ‘Secondary Schools under Surveillance: Young People “as” Risk in the UK. An Exploration of the Neoliberal Shift from Compassion to Repression’. In E. Cudworth, P. Senker and K. Walker (eds), Technology, Society and Inequality: New Horizons and Contested Futures. Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cliff, D. et al. (2007). Technology Trends, Horizon Scan Paper for Beyond Current Horizons. Bristol: Futurelab.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, C. and Eynon, R. (2013). Teenagers and Technology. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families). (2008a). Safer Children in a Digital World: The Byron Review. Nottingham: DCSF. Retrieved from www.dcsf.gov.uk/byronreview.

    Google Scholar 

  • DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families). (2008b). Byron Review Action Plan. London: DCSF.

    Google Scholar 

  • DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families). (2010). Do We Have Safer Children in a Digital World? A Review of Progress since the 2008 Byron Review. Nottingham: DCSF. Retrieved from www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowty, T. (2008). ‘Pixie-dust and Privacy: What’s Happening to Children’s Rights in England?’ Children and Society 22: 393–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Facer, K. (2012a). ‘After the Moral Panic? Reframing the Debate about Child Safety Online’. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 33(3): 397–413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Facer, K. (2012b). ‘Personal, Relational and Beautiful: Education, Technologies and John Macmurray’s Philosophy’. Oxford Review of Education 38(6): 709–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Facer, K., Furlong, J., Furlong, R. and Sutherland, R. (2003). Screenplay: Children and Computers in the Home. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Facer, K., Sutherland, R., Furlong, R. and Furlong, J. (2001). ‘Constructing the Child Computer User: From Public Policy to Private Practice’. British Journal of Sociology of Education 4(4): 91–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, N. (2000). New Labour, New Language? London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, H. (2001). ‘Using Pupil Performance Data for Judging Schools and Teachers: Scope and Limitations’. British Educational Research Journal 27(4): 433–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gove, M. (2012). Keynote Speech, BETT Show, London, January 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grek, S. (2009). ‘Governing by Numbers: the PISA ‘Effect’ in Europe’. Journal of Education Policy 24(1): 23–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grek, S. (2012). ‘What PISA Knows and Can Do: Studying the Role of National Actors in the Making of PISA’. European Educational Research Journal 11(2): 243–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grek, S. and Ozga, J. (2010). ‘Governing Education through Data: Scotland, England and the European Education Policy Space’. British Educational Research Journal 36(6): 937–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haas Dyson, A. (2010). ‘Where Are the Childhoods in Childhood Literacy?’ Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 1(1): 9–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hope, A. (2013). ‘The Politics of Online Risk and the Discursive Construction of School ‘e-safety’. In N. Selwyn and K. Facer (eds), The Politics of Education and Technology: Conflicts, Controversies and Connections. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Illich, I. (1992). Ivan Illich in conversation, ed. D. Cayley. Toronto: House of Anansi Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ito, M. et al. (2009). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. Boston: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lanier, J. (2013). Who Owns the Future? New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leckie, G. and Goldstein, H. (2011). ‘A Note on “the Limitations of School League Tables to Inform School Choice”’. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, 174: 833–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, B. (1998). ‘An Epidemic of Education Policy: What Can We Learn from Each Other?’. Comparative Education 34(2): 131–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martens, K. (2007). ‘How to Become an Influential Actor — the ‘Comparative Turn’ in OECD Education Policy’. In K. Martens, A. Rusconi and K. Lutz (eds), Transformations of the State and Global Governance. London: Routledge, PP. 40–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, A. and Thornton, S. (1995). ‘Rethinking ‘Moral Panic’ for Multi-mediated Social Worlds’. British Journal of Sociology 46(4): 559–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Grid for Learning. (1997). The Government’s Consultation Paper. London: DfEE.

    Google Scholar 

  • No Byline. (1997). ‘£100m to get kids on the net’. Daily Mirror, 7 October, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Novoa, A. and Yariv-Mashal, T. (2003). ‘Comparative Research in Education: a Mode of Governance or a Historical Journey?’ Comparative Education 39(4): 423–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OFCOM. (2012). Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report. London: OFCOM. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/main.pdf.

    Google Scholar 

  • ONS. (2012). Statistical Bulletin: Internet Access — Households and Individuals, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozga, J. (2012). ‘Assessing PISA’. European Educational Research Journal 11(2): 166–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popkewitz, T., Olsson, U. and Petersson, K. (2006). ‘The Learning Society, the Unfinished Cosmopolitan, and Governing Education, Public Health and Crime Prevention at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century’. Educational Philosophy and Theory 38(4): 431–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prout, A. (2005). The Future of Childhood. Abingdon: Routledge Falmer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D. and Wiliam, D. (1999). ‘I’ll be a nothing’: Structure, Agency and the Construction of Identity through Assessment’. British Educational Research Journal 25(3): 343–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Revoir, P. (2008). ‘Millions of girls “are at risk online”’. Daily Mail, 1 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selwyn, N. (1999). ‘Gilding the Grid: The Marketing of the National Grid for Learning’. British Journal of Sociology of Education 20(1): 55–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selwyn, N. (2003). Telling Tales on Technology. Cardiff: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selwyn, N. (2011). Schools and Schooling in the Digital Age: A Critical Analysis. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tapscott, D. (1997). Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walkerdine, V. (1997). Daddy’s Girl: Young Girls and Popular Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • World Economic Forum. (2011). Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class. Geneva: World Economic Forum. http://www.weforum.org/reports/personal-dataemergence- new-asset-class.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wroe, M. (2001). ‘We want your help’. Sunday Times, 14 October.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Keri Facer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

    Stephen Wagg (Professor) (Professor)

  2. University of Leicester, UK

    Jane Pilcher (Senior Lecturer) (Senior Lecturer)

Copyright information

© 2014 Keri Facer

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Facer, K. (2014). Recolonising the Digital Natives. In: Wagg, S., Pilcher, J. (eds) Thatcher’s Grandchildren?. Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281555_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281555_12

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44821-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28155-5

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation