Resituation or resistance? Higher education teachers’ adaptations to technological change

Abstract

This paper presents the findings from a project that explored teachers’ adaptations to technological change in four large classes in higher education. In these classes, lecturers changed from single- to multi-lecture settings mediated by videoconferencing, requiring them to transfer their beliefs and practices into a new pedagogical space. The intent of the study was to obtain a ground-level view of teaching with videoconferencing to better reveal the complex relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices around technological integration. An ethnographic approach was used and data were collected through semi-structured accounts, focus group interviews and video recordings of lectures. By conceptualising teachers’ adaptation to technology as resituation, the authors highlight how teachers’ beliefs and practices are integrated, negotiated and reconciled with the demands of a changed context. They argue that, for any technological initiative to result in positive outcomes, teachers need a clearly communicated plan that provides scaffolding through the transitional stages.

Keywords:

• teacher beliefs and practices
• technological change
• videoconferencing
• insider research
• resituation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our colleagues who generously gave their time to participate in this study during a busy teaching period. Support for this study has been provided by the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLAT), AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand.