The purpose of this study is to investigate how power is distributed in the mathematics classroom and how students achieve agency when ICT (Information and communication technology) is used as a teaching tool. Three learning situations, structured by mathematics, are analysed: in the first situation mathematics is taught in a traditional way, in the second mathematics is taught in interdisciplinary projects, and in the third mathematics is taught using ICT as a pedagogical tool. The theoretical concepts of power and agency are used as analytical tools within a socio-political framework. The concept of power is used to assess the students’ ability to influence their learning and degree of inclusion in the three learning situations. The power aspect is assumed to influence the students’ ability to achieve agency. Based on an ecological understanding of the concept, agency is examined by assessing the quality of students’ engagement in the learning situations. Also, the degree to which the students are in control of their actions is assessed. Data was collected through participant observation, questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Linguistic text analysis was used as a tool to analyse the transcripts from the interviews. The results suggest that students can achieve agency in situations where ICT is used as a pedagogical tool to enable collaboration between students. However, ICT can also distract students, which in turn can limit their achievement of agency. Furthermore, it is suggested that the results may have implications for our understanding of the concepts of power and agency in relation to ICT in a wider social context beyond the classroom. Finally, it is proposed that the question of how the distribution of power and agency influence learning when ICT is used in the mathematics classroom should be subject to further research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-115149 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Winnberg, Mattias |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för matematikämnets och naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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