INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS IN STATE SCHOOL SETTINGS: TEACHER RESPONSES TO SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVIST HEGEMONIES

Recent CALL research suggests that the arrival of new technologies in the language classroom has led to an increased dominance of the socio-constructivist paradigm (Felix, 2006). Borg (2006) suggests, however, that the hegemony of this paradigm may not extend beyond well-researched university and private ESL contexts. The present study tests this prediction by examining the integration of interactive whiteboard (IWB) technology by non-native speaking teachers of EFL in state schools in France and Germany. Teachers' cognitions were investigated via longitudinal qualitative empirical data, involving classroom observations, video recordings of lessons, in-depth interviews and video-stimulated reflections. Findings suggest that in spite of communicatively oriented, socio-constructivist training, teachers used IWB technology to implement a variety of different approaches. The paper traces teachers' use of different models, from traditional grammar-translation to more communicative and constructivist models of task and project-based learning. It shows how individual teachers' approaches are shaped by a variety of factors, such as teachers' teaching and learning experience, pedagogical beliefs and institutional demands. These findings illustrate the complexities of technology integration in CALL and show how teachers often adapt or ignore hegemonic pedagogies to construct their own representations of the technology which are more in line with their curricular and personal goals.