What pre-service teacher technology integration conceals and reveals: “Colorblind” technology in schools

Abstract

Teacher education often under-theorizes race. The field of teacher education and technology integration is also complicit in assuming a race-neutral space into which technologies are integrated. This paper explores what pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) technology integrationreveals about racialized assumptions. The research applies theoretical frameworks from teacher preparation, Whiteness and Critical Race studies, and technology integration. This study points toward a relationship between PST development, beliefs about technology, and an intersection with race awareness. The PSTs made assumptions about learning deficits, appropriate behaviors, and classroom environment, based on Whiteness, which impacted how they integrated technology. These findings complexify current educational technology narratives of technology integration which emphasize the relationship between teacher beliefs about knowledge acquisition and technology integration, but often divorce those beliefs from assumptions about race. Implications for practice include the need to confront white supremacy concealed within the technologies and pedagogies that teacher educators choose in the classroom.