Technology Entanglements of Pre-Service Teachers: A Socio-Material Analysis of Coherence in Technology and Teacher Education

Abstract

Teacher education is increasingly of interest to the Learning Sciences. Also of interest to LS are the use, integration, and roles of technology in learning. We present initial findings of an empirical study examining the intersection of technology and teacher education. We view learning as a socio-material process of identity development in which the material and the social are entangled to mutually constitute the becoming of persons. We employ the concept of ‘coherence’ to analyze the ways in which pre-service teachers are positioned by, interact with, and experience technology both in their field placement sites and in their teacher education program by analyzing interview data of different constituencies related to teacher education. Our findings show that definitions of technology shape how constituencies see the role of technology in learning and where they believe technological expertise resides. Such views are consequential for the social and material organization of teacher learning.