When technology goes unnoticed: teacher beliefs and assumptions about technology use in three 9th grade English classrooms

Abstract

ABSTRACT This manuscript explores teacher beliefs about technology in three 9th grade English classrooms. Examining these teachers’ pedagogical uses of technology and their discussion of technology with their students, this study highlights how teacher beliefs can render technology invisible. Teachers demonstrated consistent assumptions that technology would drive student interest. Further, only recent, futuristic innovations “counted” as technology to the teachers; word processing, presentation, and web-based tools driving today’s business world did not “count” as technology in teachers’ pedagogical decisions. Ultimately, this study highlights differences in contemporary educational research on teacher beliefs, teacher education, and how schools are currently treating technology.