Abstract

The theme of this study is governance technologies in the Danish primary school. The study deals with the importance of the introduction of newer technologies in school - technologies which are all aimed at improving students' academic performance and learning outcomes.

My special focus is on how teachers concretely practice these technologies in everyday life, including the considerations that underlie these practices. This focus is linked with a desire to further elucidate the governance technologies' impact on pupils in Danish schools.

Throughout the study, I work at the basis of two approaches: A profession-oriented approach where I focus on the teachers' perspectives in working with technologies and a participatory approach focusing on the importance of practice in relation to the students, which the governance is directed against.

The theoretical framework for the study is based upon the educational sociologist Basil Bernstein's theory of classification, framing and pedagogic codes.

This involves an understanding that teachers' practice of governance must be understood as shaped by both the teachers' own perspectives, attitudes, experiences and concerns but also by macro-structural conditions in the form of regulations and laws that exist in relation to the use of technologies.

Thus the practice of governance is considered as a recontextualisation process where 'external' power structures are being reshaped within local constructions of meaning. The present study is part of my Ph.d. project in progress.