Between School and Home: TPACK-in-Practice in Elementary Special Education Contexts

Abstract

This qualitative study traced the development and enactment of five elementary special education teachers’ technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) as they learned to use flexible digital tools and implemented them with students and their families before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings highlight how changing contextual factors shaped the evolution of special educators’ TPACK for using Seesaw, which served as a “mesosystem tool” connecting school and home contexts. Teachers responded positively to Seesaw, relying on a variety of sources to cultivate their TPACK for using it. Key areas of TPACK application in the special education context included multi-modal learning, motivation/engagement, assessment, feedback, adaptation, and school-home communication. Recognizing how teachers develop and apply TPACK in different contexts broadens understanding of teacher knowledge development and informs efforts to support the use of digital communication tools in special education settings.