Professional learning is a significant focus of discussion in most schools but it is not all that common for these conversations to be informed by teachers' needs and expectations. Instead, they tend to be driven by external factors, such as accreditation, mandated professional development requirements and policies. Based on an in-depth study of a…

Technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) has been used by hundreds of studies as a theoretical framework to explore teachers' technology use in classroom settings. While these studies have contributed to understandings of the interplay between these different knowledge domains and the differences between pre- and in-service…

This chapter reflects on the often uncritical debates about educational policy and the use of digital technologies by schoolteachers that have persisted over the past 30 years. Most commentators have tended to approach digital technology in unrealistic terms--either as having the potential to completely transform schools for the better or herald…

This is the second of two chapters that explore the influence of power and equality on teachers' (non) use of digital technologies as part of their classroom practice. Unlike many 'state-of-the-art' examples evident in research and public discourse which suggest the consensual and inevitable acceptance of 'ubiquitous' educational technologies,…

This chapter focuses on situated learning theories, specifically a critique of Wenger's (Communities of practice. Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998) notion of 'communities of practice'. The review of literature associated with communities of practice highlights the complexity of this framework but…

This chapter discusses the research design and the methodological approach developed to investigate teachers' TPACK enactment within their workplace communities of practice. 'The School' section provides a description of the school at the centre of this investigation. This description provides insights into the way knowledge and pressures from the…

The final chapter of this book explores new ways in which teachers' use of technologies in schools may be considered. In particular, the reader is challenged by six propositions regarding the influence of communities of practice on in-service teachers' TPACK enactment: (1) processes of identity development and practice constitute aspects of…

This is the first of three chapters that draws on empirical, qualitative research data generated from an eight-month long ethnographic investigation of four teachers in an Australian secondary school setting. In particular, this chapter uses the knowledge and context frameworks outlined in Chap. 1 to examine the interplay between policy,…

Technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) has been used by hundreds of studies as a theoretical framework to explore teachers' technology use in classroom settings. While these studies have contributed to understandings of the interplay between these different knowledge domains and the differences between pre- and in-service…