Perrotta, C orcid.org/0000-0003-3572-0844 (2017) Beyond rational choice: How teacher engagement with technology is mediated by culture and emotions. Education and Information Technologies, 22 (3). pp. 789-804. ISSN 1360-2357
Abstract
This paper focuses on the relationship between rational beliefs, culture and agency in formal school settings. This relationship is analysed in the context of the adoption of technological innovations. Interviews and focus groups with 39 secondary teachers from England and other European countries were carried out. The analysis highlights a number of cultural differences between English teachers and their continental colleagues. The paper argues against a linear and simplistic appropriation of rational choice theory in educational research, whereby individual behaviour is examined from the perspective of individualist psychology and micro-economic theory without considering models of culturally informed agency beyond self-interest and calculation. In the conclusion, the paper argues that explanations of teacher agency in relation to technology must take into account the role of rationality and emotionality not as a binary opposition that reflects actual psychological qualities that teachers may or may not possess, but as phenomena to be unpacked: competing (and culturally shaped) discursive strategies enacted to make sense of the world.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) The Author(s) 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com |
Keywords: | Rational choice; technology adoption; teacher agency; Educational culture |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Education (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Jan 2016 09:52 |
Last Modified: | 12 Feb 2019 13:04 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9457-6 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10639-015-9457-6 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:93373 |