Representationalism and Power: The Individual Subject and Distributed Cognition in the Field of Educational Technology

• Published in: Studies in philosophy and education Vol. 38; no. 5; pp. 481 - 498
• Main Author: Shutkin, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Brain; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Science; Commercialization; Dualism; Education; Educational Philosophy; Educational Research; Educational Technology; Legitimacy; Mind and body; Neoliberalism; Philosophy of Education; Political Influences; Power; Schemata (Cognition); Student Evaluation; Students; Subjectivity; Teaching Methods; Technology; Technology Integration; Theory of Mind; Theory of extended mind; Representational theory of mind; Mind/body dualism; Power relations; Educational technology; Distributed cognition
• ISSN: 0039-3746; 1573-191X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11217-019-09674-z

Distributed cognition, as it considers how technologies augment cognition, informs technology integration in education. Most educational technologists interested in distributed cognition embrace a representational theory of mind. As this theory assumes cognition occurs in the brain and depends on the internal representation of external information, it is informed by a mind/body dualism that separates the individual student from material things. Alternatively, the theory of the extended mind describes the mind as a dynamic system of interactions inclusive of human agents, technologies and other material things. Refusing the mind/body dualism, if one element is removed, the quality of cognitive activity declines. Across the cognitive sciences, there are debates between these representational and extended theories that have implications for what it means to be a student and for technology integration. However, distributed cognition research in educational technology ignores these debates. Instead, this research is conditioned by the discursive practices of a neoliberal assemblage of political, commercial and pedagogical institutions. In this era of high stakes testing, as the individual student is measured, evaluated and otherwise made subject through these practices, this assemblage expresses a tacit commitment to, and is productive of, the subjectivity of the individual student and thus benefits from the representational theory of mind. In this way, regardless of the recognized legitimacy of the theory of the extended mind, sustained by neoliberalism the field of educational technology will not soon question the veracity of the representational theory of mind or the mind/body dualism upon which it depends.