Mapping the Contours of the Research on Learning to Teach with Technology: Clusters, Categories, and Missing Trajectories

Abstract

This review of the literature examines research reports on learning to teach with technology between 2013 and 2019 to illuminate the characteristics of the field at multiple levels of granularity and to call attention to what is missing. We ask the question: What does the overarching paradigm of the field of research on learning to teach with technology look like? Using a mixed paradigmatic and data science-based analysis that involved qualitatively coding the methodologies, purposes, and approaches in the manuscripts and applying a hierarchical clustering of principal components algorithm, five clusters emerged on a two-dimensional axis that centered on exploring the teacher pipeline versus social and individual experiences on one axis and behaviors and practices versus attitudes and beliefs on the other. The field was found to be tightly centralized, and clusters overlapped and intersected with methods and outcomes bundled together in a milieu buffeted by neoliberal logics and a sense of techno-utopianism to largely support default theories around technology as a “fix” and as an end in itself to build the teacher workforce. This review finds several critical areas underrepresented, such as time- and context-bound ethnographic studies, approaches that center on anti-oppressive critical media literacy, understanding the ways technology can bridge the classroom with families and communities, and learning to teach with technology for equity and inclusion to support the sustainability and development of identities, communities, and a more democratic society.