Abstract:
This article draws on the results of a long-term, design-based research study with
South African primary school teachers to discuss the role of subjectively assigned
meanings and symbolisms of technology, as key factors affecting the adoption, appropriation
and use of educational technology in urban poor and under-resourced
environments. The paper examines how teachers’ engagements with technology
are framed, conditioned, and embedded in multi-levelled “technology encounters”.
These encounters give rise to meaningful representations of technology that ultimately
transform both the teaching and learning process, and culminate in the emergence
of “symbolic narratives”: complex assemblages of symbolisms, meanings and
interpretations that arise through and therefore come to influence further technology
engagements. We argue that a closer examination of teachers’ symbolic narratives
can shed light on the motivations that underpin the appropriation, integration -- or
conversely, rejection -- of educational technology in urban poor and under-resourced
environments.
