Technological literacy: from function to meaning

Technological literacy has been given increasing attention in recent literature on the technology curriculum. This paper focuses firstly on some discussion of one of the most commonly accepted definitions, which seeks to explicate technological literacy in functionalist terms. It then goes on to consider some of the metaphysical assumptions underpinning the techno-scientific framework which, it is argued, threaten to impoverish our understanding of that framework and consequently any view of technological literacy developed within it. A view of technological literacy is then developed which presents it as the resultant of an active engagement in the construction of meanings. It is argued that this is a form of technological literacy which aims to inculcate the creative skills essential to the forming of a constructively critical perspective on the techno-scientific framework.