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Pursuing More Equitable Technology Integration in Elementary Education: Post-Intentional Phenomenological Research Productions and Provocations

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Pursuing More Equitable Technology Integration in Elementary Education: Post-Intentional Phenomenological Research Productions and Provocations Pursuing More Equitable Technology Integration in Elementary Education: Post-Intentional Phenomenological Research Productions and Provocations A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Tiffany Nielsen-Winkelman IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Cassandra Scharber and Dr. Mark Vagle, Co-Advisers August 2018 © Tiffany Nielsen-Winkelman 2018 Acknowledgements “Remember who you are and what you stand for.” - Joni Marti Growing up my mother said this phrase to me every time I left the house. She intended the phrase to mean ‘make good choices’ - along the lines of staying out of trouble, making smart decisions, and treating others as I’d like to be treated. Yet, this simple phrase has evolved into an all-encompassing embodiment of who I am - as an educator, and as a human. I stand for inclusive education. I stand for inclusive communities. I stand for productively disrupting the status quo in education to build a more just future. I stand for service through education as my life’s work. This dissertation, as an embodiment of how I “remember who I am and what I stand for”, was made possible by each of you. In sincere appreciation to all who have supported this journey, thank you. While it is utterly impossible to acknowledge and honor all who made this dissertation come to fruition, I would like to recognize the following for helping me grow not only as a scholar, but more importantly as a person: ★ My co-advisers - Dr. Cassandra Scharber and Dr. Mark Vagle, for pushing me to the boundaries of my understandings so I may think differently and for facilitating my work at the intersections of learning technologies and elementary education fields. i ★ My committee members - Dr. J.B. Mayo and Dr. Annie Mogush Mason, for modeling how the ‘critical’ may be put to work in education to make social change towards a more just future. ★ Our University of Minnesota C&I community - with a special nod to Dr. Jana LoBello, Kathy Byrn and Dr. Karl Jung, for being inspiring colleagues and friends. ★ My fellow LTers - Daryl Boeckers, Yu-Hui Chang, Neal Fredrickson, Lynnea West, Yeng Chang, Derek Schwartz, Kris Isaacson, and Dr. Fan Ouyang, for always putting people first, for seeing technologies as a way to humanize education and for sharing kindness, laughter and tears with me. ★ My PIPsters - Sara Sterner, Dr. Liv Christensen, Dr. Kelly Gast and Dr. Jen Niedzielski, for living in the entanglements of post-intentional phenomenology, for supporting each other with caring words, scholarly pose and sarcastic humor in the never-ending iterative-ness of our work, for making space for each other to fully feel in the moment (even if a few of those moments were full on hot messes) and for lifting up each other as ‘women who know things’. ★ My participants - Claire, Eddie, Kai, Olivia, Rachel and Wade, for giving of yourselves, your time, your energy, your minds and your hearts. ★ My learners - past, present and future. You bring the purpose, the WHY of what I do. May you experience diverse inclusion. May you feel welcomed, supported, loved and empowered for who you are. ★ My family and friends, for supporting my journey in achieving the goal my seventeen-year old self made on a college visit (in what feels like many lifetimes ii ago) - your sacrifices, support and love were vital to this achievement. You helped me find my way when I felt lost and attempted to operate outside the bounds of my comfort zone (at times successfully, at other times not so much). Thank you for indulging me with Chai, Nadia Cupcakes, Moscato, Dairy Queen, Captain and Wiley Wallaby liquorice (seriously people ‘PhD pudge’ is a real thing… and it’s totally okay - yes, I know, I should love carrots and spinach and water or whatever, but I don’t). Most importantly, I appreciate how you have loved me fiercely through it all! ★ To those who take up and extend this work, I believe the ways in which we co- construct this world we belong to demands us to take up an active role in improving it. Ultimately, this is THE work of education. I offer a ‘nod’ to you in advance for the conscious action to construct educational spaces and practices in ways that are respectful, equitable and empowering for all community members. Together, may we recognize, critique and confront the world’s inequities. Thank you for facilitating my journey, for expanding my horizons, for challenging my thinking, for (re)cultivating my love of learning and for being a part of the ways in which I strive to be fully human. You. Are. Appreciated! iii Dedication This work is dedicated with love and gratitude to my family. You have made sacrifices beyond measure while being supportive, patient and loving throughout this journey. Winky, Riley, Peyton, Wesley and Logan, I dedicate this dissertation to you. My wish for you is that you make space in your lives to notice, seek to understand, critique and confront inequities in our world - and do so not as a ‘savior’, but with a fierce love for humanity to create a more inclusive and just future. iv Abstract Teaching practices, whether intended or not, privilege and marginalize particular groups of people. Inequality in education reflects inequality in society. The different ways in which technology is used may bolster or reinforce social inequities (Araque, Maiden, Bravo, Estrada, Evans, Hubchik, Kirby & Reddy, 2013). The digital usage divide (Warschauer, 2003; Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010) positions technology usage as an influencer on social divides through educational, social, political, cultural, linguistic, economic and institutional contexts (Araque et al., 2013; Gherardi, 2016; Selwyn, 2010; Warschauer, 2011a). Thus, technology usage is not neutral, and, conceptualizing the digital divides as social divides is powerful for equity work in education. As educators, and more importantly as humans, the ways in which we co- construct this world we belong to begs for us to take up an active role in improving it. This dissertation situates technology use in elementary education as simultaneously a social issue and social opportunity. The phenomenon under investigation, pursuing more equitable technology integration, was explored using post-intentional phenomenology methodology (Vagle, 2018) as it was produced, provoked and took shape. I designed and facilitated a professional learning cohort for six elementary educators, across four schools and three school districts. Professional learning cohort experiences centered on topics such as: digital divide; digital usage divide; participatory technology integration; race, social class and gender in the classroom; anti-bias education, technology use for social justice; and technology integration beliefs and practices. Participants gathered for three cohort meetings, engaged in a 1:1 conversational interview and informal interview follow-ups between November 2017 and May 2018. I used an iterative process to analyze across and through phenomenological materials (i.e. cohort artifacts, interview audio/video/transcripts, participant follow-up and a post-reflexivity journal), theory and post-reflexions. As with all equity focused work, there is a never-done-ness nature to the constant interrogation of, and the relationships with, equity social issues within technology integration practices. To this end, I offer three vivid illuminations (findings), with respect to the pursuit of more equitable technology integration: unOthering, questioning societal implications and achieving homeostasis. Concluding thoughts and productive speculations of this dissertation invite you as readers, as scholars and as educators to engage with three social issue → social opportunity conceptions: 1. Wobble [the Technology Integration Ecosystem]; 2. Be Profoundly Present [in the Entanglements]; and 3. [Temper] Being and Becoming. In each, plausible possibilities for the fields of learning technologies, elementary education and/or teacher education are shared as means of social change towards a more just future. In which case, I conclude opportunities for social change dwell not within the technology tools themselves, but in the relationships among people, social systems and usage of these tools to represent and produce more equitable ways of knowing and being. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements i Dedication iv Abstract v Table of Contents vi List of Figures xi Chapter 1: Technology Integration in Elementary Education - 1 Simultaneously a Social Issue and a Social Opportunity Background of the Social Issue 5 Terms and Trends: Elementary Education and Learning Technologies 9 Purpose of the Research Study 13 Phenomenon 14 Research Questions 14 Significance of the Study 16 Organization of the Chapters 16 Chapter 2: Technology Integration Review of Literature 18 Technology Integration: Historical Underpinnings and Understandings 19 Influence of Societal Factors on K-12 Technology Integration 22 Oft-Cited Societal Factors 22 Uninterrogated Societal Factors 23 Defining Technology Integration in this Research 26 Factors Influencing Technology Integration 31 Technology Integration Pedagogies and Practices 32 Technology Integration Teacher Beliefs 36 Technology Integration Professional Learning 41 Summary of Technology Integration Review of Literature 45 Chapter 3: The Digital Divides and Technology Integration 47 vi The Digital Divides 47 Initial Digital Divide 48 Secondary Digital Divide 51 Social Opportunities with the Digital Divides 53 Technology Integration - A Participatory Practice
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