Teachers using technology: aspirations and classroom activity

This paper is about teachers using technology in ‘ordinary’ conditions. It addresses the discrepancies between potentialities of technology and teachers’ aspirations with regard to technology use, and between teachers ‘ expectations and the actual carrying out of technology based lessons in the classroom as well as by unexpected episodes of uncertainty and improvisation that teachers experience when teaching these lessons. Two models are used to make sense of teachers’ position and of classroom phenomena. Ruthven and Hennessy’s (2002) model helps to understand how teachers connect potentialities of a technology to their pedagogical aspirations, rather than to mathematically meaningful capabilities, and to interpret their classroom activity. Saxe’s (1991) model helps to analyse the flow of unexpected circumstances challenging teachers’ professional knowledge in technology based lessons and to understand how teachers react to this flow. It also draws attention on the consequences of the introduction of new artifacts in the culture of the classroom. This gives tools for researchers to work in partnership with teachers, as well as for a reorientation of teacher development in technology towards reflective approaches.