Teachers in the wild are pragmatic: An Integral Analysis of Teachers’ Perspectives on the Integration of Technology in Teaching
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ integration of technology from multiple perspectives to gain a rich and contextualized understanding of how they genuinely use technology in the classroom. Four research questions were addressed in this study; (a) What influence does technology infrastructure have on teachers using technology? (b) What do teachers believe and think about technology? (c) What is the technological culture that teachers’ experience? (d) What is the influence of policies on teachers’ use of technology? Wilber’s Integral methodological pluralism was used as a framework to orient the study, to organize the research questions and to provide the conceptual framework for the research methodology.
Teachers experience a lack of access to technology which proved to be a barrier to most. However, teachers with mature understanding of technology enabled student knowledge creation, successfully overcame these barriers. Teachers must navigate the changing technology connected classroom culture for students to experience academic success. Teachers struggle with policies that make the technology program of studies vague and without specific outcomes. However, a ministerial focus on technology to support the communication and creation of knowledge by students rather than on supporting teaching, encourages the development of mature technology integration.
Description
Keywords
Education--Curriculum and Instruction, Education--Technology
Citation
Ikenouye, D. (2017). Teachers in the wild are pragmatic: An Integral Analysis of Teachers’ Perspectives on the Integration of Technology in Teaching (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27983