Teaching within a university: an in depth study of the every day use of technology

The assumptions underpinning this study are that in order to understand the real use of technology in teaching it is necessary to examine the everyday world of the university (Eisner & Peshkin, 1990, p. 99) and then to ‘tell it as it is’. The enquiry process is approached from a disciplinary context by capturing the views and actual practice of technology use in teaching of thirteen academics from different disciplinary fields within one university. A case study methodology framed the design of the study, requiring the collection of data from a variety of sources in order to describe the university which defined the study. My intention was to answer the following question: How is the use of technology shaped by the everyday teaching practice of academics within a university? The aim of the study therefore was to explore the use of technology by examining the academic’s views about how technology affected the way that they understood teaching. A feature of contemporary research into technology and teaching is an emphasis on small, context specific case studies. These often separate teaching and learning from other aspects of cultural practice, such as disciplinary and other institutional influences. In this study Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse and his categories of recognition and realisation, along with the concepts of classification and framing provided a detailed coding structure as a way of analysing the resulting interview data. Analysis of practical examples of technology use in teaching revealed that academics are influenced by ideological conceptions of epistemic and social relations that are inherent within their own values and beliefs about their own roles and those of students. The coding structure revealed a variety of pedagogic practice linked to vertical (i.e complex) language use or horizontal (i.e everyday) language use. The detailed case studies of technology use by the individual academics gave rise to four different categories of teaching - knowledge and knower modes of teaching, with a vocational or non-vocational focus. This thesis contributes to professional knowledge in this field because of the use of a social theory which highlights the complex relationship between technology and pedagogic discourse and the institutional and disciplinary forces that shape the relationship.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

edd

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Greenwich

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Jump, Lynne

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Ainley, Patrick
• Barnard, Jane

• LB Theory and practice of education

Language dc:language

en