Thinking out-of-the-box

Slow as a panacea for creating democratic education in Australian schools

Abstract

The uptake of digital technologies in education is a significant issue for governments and organisations across the world as concerns are expressed about students’ lack of progress in these areas. As a result, the inclusion of digital technologies is often unquestioned and caught up in a largely aspirational discourse of inevitability, where the belief is that using digital technologies will lead to curriculum reform. The case study of Slow, presented here, aims to enlighten the conversation with examples from research in different education jurisdictions in Australia. Slow is a national vision for digitally rich education through a different lens. This new theoretical framework of Slow comprises four convergent themes: state of mind, time, process and connectedness. These themes are offered through interdisciplinary, technology-rich secondary school examples that highlight the potential of Slow to re-imagine the way we think about education. Important critique offered throughout the concise paper signposts diverse interpretations of the digital technologies agenda that is often missing from ‘click-bait’ media snapshots and in recent government reports. Examinations of understandings and practices in some Australian education contexts offer universal and readily transferable treasures that suggest powerful options and ripostes for policy, education leaders, teachers and young people.