The Paradox of Inform@tion Technology in Primary Schools: E‐learning is new but gender patterns are old!

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the impact of IT on school and teacher cultures. It reports on Swedish teachers' use of IT in different school subjects by means of a case study comprising one school, four teachers (2 men and 2 women), and their pupils aged 9–12. The methods of data collection used were interviews and observations. The aim of the study was to investigate how the teachers experience IT as a “solution” and/or “frustration” in developing their professional knowledge and in providing new learning situations for pupils. The case study suggests that, at least in this school, IT is experienced as a creative and helpful tool, which enhances teaching and learning even if the transformation of IT pedagogies demands much effort and time from the teachers. However, the women have found it more difficult than the men to incorporate information technology into their practice. Thus, two themes have emerged from the case study: IT as a valuable tool for changing the form and content of teaching and learning, and IT as strongly gendered, that is, having male attributes.

Keywords:

• Gender
• Information technology
• Primary school
• Teacher

Acknowledgement

This research project is financed by The Faculty of Teacher Education and the Department of Interactive Media and Learning at Umeå University, in Sweden. I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Gaby Weiner and Associate Professor Elisabet Öhrn, my supervisors, for support and valuable advice and comments on my drafts.

Notes

1. FirstClass is an email and conference system used in different IT projects in this municipality. Larger IT projects such as “The Third Room” are supported by a common technological expert group. Smaller projects are developed by the teachers themselves. Miniconferences and IT activities are developed by the teachers together. A teacher, IT co‐ordinator of smaller projects, monitors access to the different conferences for participating pupils and teachers.

2. The terminology has changed from IT to ICT—with the aim of underlining the communication function—and then back to IT again. The communication aspect was considered to be already included in the old term (see http://www.nada.kth.se/dataterm/index.html).

3. E‐learning (electronic ways of learning) is defined as learning with the aid of ICT tools. Another definition is taken from a government's e‐learning strategy: “If someone is learning in a way that uses information and communication technologies (ICTs), they are e‐learning. They could be a pre‐school child playing an interactive game; a group of pupils collaborating on a history project with pupils in another country via the Internet” (DfES, 2003).

4. “The Third Room” is a project encouraging communication between schools in the same municipality. Teachers and technical support group have initiated and developed the project since the middle of the 1990s, which was funded by the municipality rather than the KK Foundation. By 2003, about 45 schools were involved, divided into 9 sub‐projects with 3 to 7 classes or schools in each. Teachers and pupils from different classes in different parts of the municipality are thus compelled to work together. For example, pupils can undertake research in one conference (The Brain Office), plan a trip in another (Backpacker), find a book in a third (The Library) and write in English in a fourth (The English Corner) and so on. Once a year all the pupils and teachers in the same sub‐project meet each other face to face.

5. The case study is a part of a wider study of the relationship between teacher knowledge, information technology, and gender, Lärarkunskap och Inform@tionsTeknik‐ skapar det rum för andra och jämlikare former av lärande? [Teacher Knowledge and Inform@tion Technology—does that create room for other and more equal forms of learning?; in Swedish]. Project leader is Ingamaj Hellsten.

6. I: 12, for example, means introductory interview, page 12. FI: 4–5 means follow‐up interview, pp. 4–5.

7. Questions in one of the two “ITiS” projects (translated from Swedish): (1) What have you done? (2) How did it work? (3) What more do you need to learn? (4) Do you want to learn more of this? (5) How are you? (6) Do you think the week has been good for your classmates? (7) Is there anything we ought to change in the school? (8) Is there anything else you want to tell?