vised and often playful negotiation and remix of materials and techniques—and
asks: what are the implications for how we research educational technology practice
and for how we practice teacher education?
50.1 Introduction
‘New technology’is not new. Over the last six or more decades (arguably since the
establishment of formal schooling much earlier than that), wave after wave of‘new
technology’have emerged: television, video cassettes, microcomputers, laptops, the
internet and, most recently, portable, mobile (and even wearable) devices. In this
chapter, I provide a critique of dominant views of teachers’technology work with
reference to the assumptions underpinning much policy on and research into edu-
cational technology. First, I characterise approaches to understanding teachers’
technology practices found in public policy and mainstream educational technology
research. I then argue that sociomaterial understandings of practice offer alternative
conceptual tools that are more likely to support and promote teacher innovation
with technology. To do this, I draw upon a selection of concepts and analyses that
have influenced my practice as a teacher educator and educational technology
researcher and which inform a discussion of the practice of teacher education and
implications for teacher education research.
50.2 Ed-tech Policy Discourse: Example of Australia
Per capita, Australia is an international leader in the uptake of new information and
communication technologies, both in schools and more generally in the community.
Australian government policy relating to technology in schools is similar to that
found in other economically similar countries in terms of discursive politics and
funding foci. Jordan ( 2011 ) provides an analysis of two decades of Australian
national policies on school education and information and communication tech-
nology (ICT), identifying a persistent determinist view of technology, coupled with
an instrumentalist view of teachers and teaching. Jordan argues that these are key
features of an official discourse in support of ICT in schools. More recent gov-
ernment reports perpetuate this discourse, with the Australian Government Digital
Education Reference Group stating:
Achieving enhanced education outcomes in Australian schools is increasingly linked to the
pace of digital education uptake. Investment in digital education is helping to reshape how
students learn and even what they learn through powerful 21st Century tools. Schools must
be encouraged to see the opportunities that such tools provide to support improving
learning and teaching. (Australian Government Department of Education and Training
2013 ,p.5)742 J. Lynch