Description:
Historically, the positioning of technology and expertise has been an antithesis to girls and women. Much literature has focused on understanding and responding to the perceived differences between boys’ and girls’ access to, use of, and understanding of various forms of technology. In a recent qualitative study I conducted, eight teenaged technological experts (three of whom were girls) were observed and interviewed about their use of home computers and understanding of technological expertise. In regard to this heterogeneous New Zealand group, the data suggested that, although the trajectories toward technological expertise were gendered, gender did not limit the teenage girls in their acquisition of expertise. This article explores and challenges dichotomous debates about technology, gender, expertise, and then focuses on the understandings of computers as a subject in schools and as a future career. Through this discussion, the article demonstrates that the participants were aware of the gendered stereotypes surrounding girls and technology, yet dismissed them.
Description:
Drawing on Bourdieu's (1990, 1998, 2000) socio-cultural theories, this article explores the construction of technological expertise amongst a heterogenous group of New Zealand teenagers, specifically in regard to their home computer use, which for many of them is their primary site of leisure. The qualitative study involved observations and interviews with eight teenagers aged 13 to 17. All the participants considered themselves to be technological experts, and their peers and/or their family supported this self-description. This article examines differences between the concepts and value of learning, expertise and technology, and how they are valued differently between generations. After discussing the habitus (dispositions) prevalent in the field of out-of-school leisure of teenage experts, the notion that the participants are addicted to their computers is explored. This article highlights a tension regarding how practice in the field is conceptualised differently by digital insiders and digital newcomers, and discusses some implications for educators.