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What is ‘competence’ and how should education incorporate new technology's tools to generate ‘competent civic agents’
Author(s) -
Haste Helen
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the curriculum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1469-3704
pISSN - 0958-5176
DOI - 10.1080/09585170903195845
Subject(s) - adaptability , competence (human resources) , public relations , ambiguity , agency (philosophy) , affordance , civic engagement , sociology , information and communications technology , democracy , political science , pedagogy , psychology , social psychology , social science , computer science , management , politics , law , economics , cognitive psychology , programming language
This article addresses the competences needed in twenty‐first‐century life, especially in relation to civic participation, and the educational requirements to foster them in young people. New technologies are widely used by young people for informal social interaction, video game‐playing and giving voice to their views. Incorporation of these practices into the classroom has been fairly slow, despite their manifest potential for promoting agency and civic engagement. The article argues that this is in part due to the need for a cultural shift in education to accommodate them. Currently, many competences young people will need for the future world of interactive technology and ‘bottom‐up’ information, communication and democracy are mainly being developed through informal practices. These competences, which include adaptability, managing ambiguity and agency are discussed in relation to civic participation.