A recent journal alert led me on a fox and hedgehog chase. I came across a paper called The Hedgehog and the Fox: A Discussion of the Approaches to the Analysis of ICT Reforms in Teacher Education of Larry Cuban and Yrjö Engeström. It’s a bit of a mouthful of a title, but as my interests do lie in the area of ICT reforms and education, I downloaded it and read it. What struck me most was this explanation of the first part of the title.
… Isaiah Berlin (1998) began by quoting Greek poet Archilochus: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” (p. 437). Berlin used these words to describe people as being either like a hedgehog or like a fox. Hedgehogs are those people who pursue one idea thoroughly and who develop an integrated or universal principle. Foxes, on the other hand, are people who pursue many ideas and who seldom stay long with one before trying out another. These people are pluralistic; they move on many levels and draw on a variety of experiences. (p84)
While the paper does describe the reactions to reforms of teacher education using computer technology, the conceptualisation of foxes and hedgehogs lead me to consider other areas where computer technology approaches are dichotomised, namely the Internet Filtering debate we are currently engaged in within Australia.
Read more of Hedgehogs, Foxes and the Internet Filter Debate
