TY  - UNPB
TI  - The impact of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) on teachers' professional learning (TPL)
UR  - http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.535092
AV  - restricted
EP  - 329
N1  - Unpublished
ID  - discovery10007367
M1  - Doctoral
Y1  - 2008///
PB  - Institute of Education, University of London
A1  - Daly, Caroline
N2  - ABSTRACT
The thesis investigates the impact of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) on
teachers' professional learning (TPL). It is based on the online discussions conducted by a group of
teachers participating in an accredited course in continuing professional development. Concepts of
'community' and 'agency' are identified as core conceptual links between the fields of CMC and
TPL. These concepts inform theoretical perspectives on the impact of CMC, based on
socio-constructivist perspectives on learning, and inform an analysis of TPL.
A qualitative case approach is adopted, in which CMC is conceived of as a social and literate
practice, and TPL as a complex social, as well as individual, phenomenon. As a tutor-researcher,
my role in creating a narrative of the case, and contributing to its interpretation, is made explicit.
To investigate in an underdeveloped field, interdisciplinary methods are developed, which are: a
sociometric analysis of the discussions to examine the 'relatedness' of the online texts; the
adaptation of a Qualitative Content Analysis model (Garrison and Anderson, 2003) to conduct
detailed textual analysis of the discussions; and narrative interviews with the teachers to
investigate their perspectives on their learning and participation in the discussions. The findings
indicate that the teachers' learning contains features of community and agency, but does so
inconsistently, and displays varying degrees of the effects of hegemony on agentive conceptual
development.
The thesis proposes that TPL within CMC is constituted by three sets of relations: peer relations,
textual relations and relations of reification, by which teachers develop a process-oriented
engagement with their learning. This engagement develops differently among individuals, and
they occupy different positions within these relations which affects how far the learning can be
identified with concepts of 'community', and how far it can be identified as 'agentive'.
ER  -