Teachers and Technology: The Stories of a DEIS School’s Experiences During a Global Pandemic

Jackson, Aisling (2021) Teachers and Technology: The Stories of a DEIS School’s Experiences During a Global Pandemic. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

This dissertation contributes to the understanding of a particular DEIS school’s teachers’ experiences of teaching and using technology during the global pandemic COVID-19. It provides an examination of different emergent themes (barriers, challenges to social context and connectivity, and transformed pedagogy), through a review of literature both pre and post Covid regarding teachers and technology, whilst also linking in relevant Irish policies and frameworks that create a contextual background for the study. The aims of the research were to explore the stories and voices of individual teachers in a particular school, during the global pandemic and co-construct and situate their stories as part of a wider picture, whilst gaining understanding and insight into the experiences of this DEIS school. The study involved interviews with seven teachers from an inner-city Dublin DEIS post-primary school.

The narrative methodology that is adopted in this research is experience centred, that has an emphasis on temporality, society and place (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), with an awareness of who the participants were and the context in which they experienced this. This in turn allowed for reflective practice about experiential learning to occur and an examination of transformative experiences of the collective participants through co-constructing their stories. Themes that emerged from these stories through applying Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis were the following; continued duty of care, evolving emotions, barriers, evolving learning environment, adapting professional identity. Similarities to these themes were evident within current literature and it is clear that for technology to continue integrating meaningfully into education, in DEIS schools, a need to examine the barriers such as access to devices, funding, teacher-self efficacy and training needs to continue to be addressed in future Irish policy documents and frameworks.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	DEIS; Teaching; Technology; COVID; Professional identity; Online teaching and learning
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > Teaching Personnel L Education > LC Special aspects / Types of education > E-Learning L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > Teaching Personnel > Secondary School Teachers
Divisions:	Centre for Education and Lifelong Learning > Master of Arts in Educational Practice
Depositing User:	Clara Chan
Date Deposited:	14 Jan 2022 15:20
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2022 15:28
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/5292

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