Date of Graduation

2001

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate, compare, and analyze perceptions of technology among the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) programs doctoral students, and to identify the institutional factors that influenced these perceptions. The data were collected through literature review, survey, interviews, and Internet searches. The treatment and analysis of data were combinations of quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings of this research indicated that: (1) various perceptions of technology exist among the scholars of technology identified for this research, (2) the STS doctoral students seem to differ in their perceptions of technology, (3) the majority of STS doctoral students' perceptions of technology were changed by their programs, (4) it appeared that there was no obvious difference among the doctoral students regarding the institutional/program factors that influenced their perceptions of technology, and (5) about two thirds of STS doctoral students appeared to be white, non-Hispanic males with backgrounds mainly in social sciences, and ages between 20 to 39. Additional findings included: (1) there was a lack of agreement on who the scholars of technology are, (2) there were programs identified and recognized by others as STS programs that did not perceive themselves as such, (3) technical knowledge appeared to be unimportant to the doctoral students studied for this research, (4) the majority of survey participants had not thought about how the context of the study of technology should be categorized, nor what the educational objectives should be, (5) the STS doctoral programs were evolving programs and rather "U.S. focused" and (6) the STS doctoral students studied appeared to have diverse academic backgrounds but showed no obvious evidence of being less bound by disciplines in terms of their research.

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