ICT and Language Teacher Development in the Global South: A New Materialist Discourse Analysis

• Published in: Educational studies (Ames) Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 260 - 278
• Main Author: Ahmed, Anwar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 03-05-2016; Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Bangladesh; Capacity Building; Content Analysis; Discourse Analysis; English (Second Language); English Teachers; Faculty Development; Foreign Countries; Information technology; Language Teachers; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; Professional development; Program Effectiveness; Skill Development; Studies; Teacher Education Programs; Theory of Mind; Bangladesh
• ISSN: 0013-1946; 1532-6993
• DOI: 10.1080/00131946.2016.1169183

In this article, I present insights from a discourse analytic study in which I examined publications that emerged from a teacher development program in Bangladesh. The program, known as English in Action, utilizes information and communication technologies to deliver professional development activities to English-language teachers. Now in its 8th year, the program claims great success in developing teachers' pedagogical knowledge and capacity. The primary purpose of this article is to analyze the discourses that this program uses to claim success. Building on Hargreaves and Fullan's (1992) three integrated approaches to teacher development, I analyzed a large corpus of texts. I drew on the recent scholarship on new materialism to guide the analysis. The findings suggest that most of the discourses that English in Action uses are detached from the material reality in which teachers live, learn, and work. I conclude the article with a call for using a new materialist lens to read dominant discourses about ICT-use in teacher professional development.