School Administrators, ICT Coordinators and Teachers’ Metaphorical Conceptualizations of Technology

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of school administrators, ICT coordinators and teachers regarding the concept of “technology”. 87 participants completed the prompt “Technology is like…because…” by focusing on one metaphor about technology. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to figure out the metaphor categories and whether they differentiate according to participants’ position, gender and age variables. Content analysis was used to analyze the perceptions of the participants. Findings of the study showed that the participants indicated 60 valid metaphors which were grouped into five categories: 1) Technology as a changing and developing entity (e.g. children, fashion); 2) Technology as a facilitator (e.g. key, organ); 3) Technology as a needed entity (e.g. food, air); 4) Technology as a useful and harmful entity (e.g. viruses, sugar); 5) Technology as a diffusional entity (e.g. octopus, ocean). It was found that the majority of metaphorical conceptualization categories aligned with “a useful and harmful entity” by administrators, “a facilitator” by ICT coordinators and “a changing and developing entity” by teachers. According to the findings of the quantitative analyses there is no significant relationship between the participants’ perceptions of technology regarding age and gender. However significant relationship was found between the participants’ perceptions of technology and their position.