Actor Network Theory goes to School

Actor Network Theory (ANT) is explored as a useful tool in researching the intersection of English teaching and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), to understand the complex interaction of influences, both human and non-human, that combine to achieve a particular outcome, in this case the uptake of ICTs by English teachers in an Australian school. What this means is that alongside interviewing the teachers, administrators and technical support people, recognition is given to the influence of inanimate objects such as computers, bluestone walls and curriculum documents. This constructs a more complex picture of the change process accounting both for the invisible ideology of teacher beliefs as well as the technical capacity and incapacity of machines, buildings and policies. At the heart of ANT lies the metaphor of the heterogeneous network which is made up of diverse, not simply human, materials. Often these networks become consolidated as single point actors e.g. the English curriculum, the computer laboratory, the library, which are then seen as fixed entities rather than an amalgamation of parts prone to change. ANT allows for the constituent parts to be investigated, and following Bruno Latour’s Aramis, (1996) this can be done creatively by literally giving voice to inanimate objects such as computers. Why Actor Network Theory? How do you interview a computer, a bluestone wall and a curriculum document? I haven’t managed it yet but I have found all of the above to be very significant to my research and more interestingly, I have found a way to give these inanimate objects a voice. That ‘way’ is Actor Network Theory (ANT) and what follows is a brief introduction to ANT and a more particular look at how I have found it useful both for my research conceptualisation and writing as I explored the intersection of English teachers and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). Actor Network Theory (ANT) may seem a strange choice of theory for a study of English and Technology in schools. This strangeness may be because ANT is not a widely known theory, or strange because it originated in the sciences and my research is in the humanities. Both these points of strangeness offer fertile possibilities especially due to ANT’s crossdisciplinary nature. ANT pioneers such as Michel Callon, (1986) Bruno Latour (1987, 1993, 1996, 1999, 1986), and John Law (1986, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999) developed a new interpretive approach to studying the sociology of science and engineering by following scientists and engineers around in their daily work in order to study how they go about making scientific facts and artefacts. One of the greatest strengths of their work is their questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions and also their commitment to probing firmly held beliefs at both the conceptual and the particular levels. At the heart of actor network theory lies the metaphor of the heterogeneous network which ... is a way of suggesting that society, organizations, agents and machines are all effects generated in patterned networks of