An examination of computing styles among teachers in elementary schools

In this article I examine the ways in which teachers organize their workplace behaviors as they respond to computers in their schools. Particular attention is given to the strategies that develop among teachers enabling them to address their own occupational concerns and organizational expectations simultaneously. Data were collected through extensive observation and formal interviewing in nine elementary schools. Computers had been in each of the schools for at least five years at the time of the study. Findings reveal that teachers shape the meaning of computer technology in their schools through styles of computing including avoidance, integration, and technical specialization. This influence has critical implications for the ongoing process of computer implementation in elementary schools.

[1]  S. Barley.  The Social Construction of a Machine: Ritual, Superstition, Magical Thinking and other Pragmatic Responses to Running a CT Scanner , 1988 .

[2]  J. Lanzetta,et al.  Innovation in organizations , 1965 .

[3]  Jason L. Dedrick,et al.  Computing and Public Organizations , 1986 .

[4]  A. Strauss,et al.  The Discovery of Grounded Theory , 1967 .

[5]  W. Corsaro,et al.  Friendship and peer culture in the early years , 1985 .

[6]  The role of the school principal in computer education , 1993 .

[7]  Grant Mccracken.  The long interview , 1988 .

[8]  William Lynch,et al.  Educational Leadership in the Age of Technology: The New Skills. , 1992 .

[9]  Larry Cuban.  Teachers and machines : the classroom use of technology since 1920 , 1986 .

[10]  Henry Jay Becker,et al.  How Computers are Used in United States Schools: Basic Data from the 1989 I.E.A. Computers in Education Survey , 1991 .

[11]  K. Weick.  Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems , 1976, Gestión y Estrategia.

[12]  R. Gorden,et al.  Interviewing: Strategy, techniques, and tactics , 1987 .

[13]  F. Damanpour,et al.  Organizational innovation and performance: The problem of "organizational lag." , 1984 .

[14]  Joan Lieber,et al.  Computer Laboratory Specialists in Elementary Schools , 1989 .

[15]  W. Form,et al.  Women, Men, and Machines , 1983 .

[16]  Tjeerd Plomp,et al.  Staff development as a condition for computer integration , 1993 .

[17]  Implications of an Institutional View of Education for the Study of Educational Effects , 1987 .

[18]  D. Cohen.  Educational Technology, Policy, and Practice , 1987 .

[19]  R. Hodson.  THE ACTIVE WORKER , 1991 .

[20]  R. Hodson.  Workplace Behaviors , 1991 .

[21]  Theory and method in a study of Argentine fertility , 1974 .

[22]  Kailash Joshi,et al.  A Model of Users' Perspective on Change: The Case of Information Systems Technology Implementation , 1991, MIS Q..

[23]  Betty Collis.  Computers, curriculum, and whole-class instruction : issues and ideas , 1988 .