| This dissertation research seeks to understand how teacher candidates come to know teaching with technology through reflective inquiry in and on their practices (Sch6n, 1983, 1987) during field experiences and student teaching. The researcher concurs with the claim that teachers are knowers of the known (Fenstermacher, 1994), and that teacher candidates hold and express personal practical knowledge (Clandinin, 1985) of teaching with technology that needs to be accessed through reflection and deliberation. In the area of preparing teacher education students to teach with technology, we need to know more about how teacher candidates' personal practical knowledge--- embodied in individuals and embedded in contexts---shapes their knowledge of integrating technology into the curriculum.;Narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) was used in this research as a way of knowing (Bruner, 1986), and a method of research and representational form (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). The stories lived and told by the teacher candidates were used to excavate and advance their personal practical knowledge. I present these stories from participants' own perspectives and then discuss the meanings of each.;This research was conducted with four teacher candidates in the teacher education program at a large research university in the U.S. Each of them took three one-credit technology courses in Phase 1, 2, and 3 of the program. They were required to reflect on their experiences learning to teach with technology in field experiences. The data sources include the four participants' technology products, online written reflections, self-edited reflective teaching videos and in-depth interviews conducted during their student teaching. Forming a story constellation (Craig, 2007), their narratives of experience revealed their learning to integrate technology into the classroom context through taking university technology courses and teaching in public schools.;The most important finding of this study was that all four participants' current learning and teaching experiences were profoundly influenced by their prior educational experiences, which, in turn, shaped their future practices. Their reflective thoughts on how they learned, what they learned and how they taught with technology varied depending on the individual and social experiences shaping/influencing their growth. At the same time, they all went through changes in one way or another during field experiences and student teaching. Specifically, changes in the following related areas emerged: (a) continuous experiences with technology; (b) learning to use technology; (c) learning to teach with technology; (d) integrating technology in teaching; (e) site-based teachers' use of technology; (f) barriers to integration; (g) image of a technology-using teacher; (h) reflecting on videotaped teaching; and (i) collaborative learning.;Thus, this research focused on teacher candidates' narrative experiences of learning and teaching with technology, and explored how they constructed and reconstructed their knowledge through reflective inquiry. In addition, it considered that teacher candidates are positioned uniquely (Olson, 2000) on professional knowledge landscapes (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995) in terms of four curricular commonplaces: teachers, learners, milieu, and subject matter (Schwab, 1983). Moreover, teacher candidates collaboratively learn and teach in knowledge communities by sharing stories of experiences (Craig, 1995a; 1995b; 2004).;Finally, by reflecting on these findings, I unearth three issues related to teacher education technology courses: teacher educators' roles in shaping preservice teachers' personal practical knowledge of teaching with technology, reflective practice, and university and school partnerships. In the end result, I make recommendations for future research. |
