Devices and desires: subject subcultures, pedagogical identity and the challenge of information and communications technology

Abstract

This article reports some findings from the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council-funded InterActive Education project, in which teachers, researchers, and teacher educators have worked together to develop, perform, and evaluate classroom-based ‘Subject Design Initiatives’ (SDIs). Drawing on notions from sociocultural theory, we have focused on ‘cultural tools’ as material and symbolic mediators of learning. In the SDIs teachers are seen as central to learning in the classroom, incorporating information and communications technology (ICT) into their designed learning situations in a naturalistic way. The research reported in this article focuses on the promise and challenge ICT presents to established subject subcultures as seen through the eyes of individual teachers. More particularly, we are interested in the ways in which teachers' subject identities, their personal theories and espoused pedagogical styles interact with ICT, and whether teachers from various subject areas differ in the way they perceive the role of ICT in their teaching