ABSTRACT
Progressive and essentialist educational theories resonate with cultural clashes going on in all aspects of human life in the twenty-first century often portrayed as traditionalist versus progress or conservative versus liberal. Essentialist educational theory focuses on developing a competent and skilled person, with focus on teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, liberal arts and science, and other academic disciplines. The essence of essentialism is dealing with "factual knowledge". Essentialism focuses on instructional strategies such as direct instruction, where the teacher and efforts can be directed imparting knowledge in a goal-directed, teacher-controlled environment. The cultural/political conflict over educational policy and practice between proponents of essentialist educational theory and progressive educational theory continues today with long-standing beliefs and ideas. A school system in a south-western state provided an example of the cultural conflict between essentialist theory and progressive theory in education and its impact on technology adoption in public schools.
