tandfonline.com – Variations of Symbolic Power and Control in the One-to-One Computing Classroom: Swedish Teachers’ Enacted Didactical Design Decisions

ABSTRACT

This study provides new insights into Swedish teachers’ didactical designs when handling two contemporary challenges regarding the new national curriculum and the increasing digitalisation of schools through one-to-one computing initiatives. The research questions consider how teachers organise physical and digital resources in their classrooms as well as variations in teachers’ pedagogical communication. From a study of 23 one-to-one computing classrooms (using tablets), some ethnographic-inspired methods were applied based on classroom observation and recordings of teachers’ teaching. The findings show two distinct forms of teachers’ classroom organisation that indicate different didactical designs used by teachers to integrate one-to-one computing into the classroom. Variations in teaching resulted in a shift of symbolic power and control from teachers to students, which exploit the potential of using one-to-one computing in the classroom.