Maintaining teaching : exploring te(a)ch-abilities with actor-network theory
Mörtsell, Sara LU
(2024)
In Akademiska avhandlingar vid Pedagogiska institutionen
- Abstract
- The thesis investigates everyday teaching with digital technology during
the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The pandemic was one of the
world’s largest disruptions to everyday education with both health and
education at stake. With the pandemic control measures affecting upper
secondary education in Sweden, gathering in the classroom cannot be
taken for granted and digital technologies accelerated and intensified
everyday practices. The aim is to explore the relation of teaching and
digital technology. How can we understand the ways in which digital
technology and teaching become jointly experimented with to cope with
pandemic uncertainty?
With an Actor-Network theory (ANT) approach, the thesis... (More) - The thesis investigates everyday teaching with digital technology during
the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The pandemic was one of the
world’s largest disruptions to everyday education with both health and
education at stake. With the pandemic control measures affecting upper
secondary education in Sweden, gathering in the classroom cannot be
taken for granted and digital technologies accelerated and intensified
everyday practices. The aim is to explore the relation of teaching and
digital technology. How can we understand the ways in which digital
technology and teaching become jointly experimented with to cope with
pandemic uncertainty?
With an Actor-Network theory (ANT) approach, the thesis puts emphasis
on how everyday teaching holds together at the pandemic intersection of
routine and breakdown. The everyday teaching practices during the
pandemic is an empirical focal point for inquiry into how they become
enacted and, secondly, what the implications are for knowledge
production when examining this novel educational practice with ANT’s
relational materialism. To answer these questions, ethnographic
methods are used with an upper secondary school in Sweden from May
2020 to June 2021. The fieldwork consists of empirical engagements in
school visits, interviews, and online observations. In line with recent
ANT scholarship, the methodological approach is articulated as a care-
ful methodology. It implies tracing vulnerable and stable relations that
enact sociomaterial practice and acknowledging cuts and becoming.
The results show how a manifold of more-than-digital practices enact
everyday teaching. The included studies in the thesis examine
attendability and mundane rituals, lesson enactments of scheduling
practices, and digital platforms that co-produce specific practices while
obscuring others. Teaching in the pandemic challenges taken-for-
granted notions of a rapid transition to distance and online teaching. By
surfacing neglected aspects of everyday teaching with digital technology
the thesis discusses how ‘digitalisation of teaching’ erases the local work
of everyday teaching as an equipped practice. In conclusion, the proposal
is made that maintaining teaching takes into account the materiality,
abilities, care, and vulnerabilities that enact everyday teaching. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d5987d10-06ae-47bb-9cf6-c137a001b968
- author
- Mörtsell, Sara
LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Professor Lundahl, Christian, Örebro university
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Akademiska avhandlingar vid Pedagogiska institutionen
- issue
- 135
- publisher
- Umeå University
- defense location
- Stora Jadwiga, Gävle
- defense date
- 2024-06-14 13:00:00
- ISSN
- 0281-6768
- ISBN
- 978-91-8070-415-1
- 978-91-8070-414-4
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d5987d10-06ae-47bb-9cf6-c137a001b968
- alternative location
- http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-224628
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-16 16:25:06
- date last changed
- 2025-10-07 03:37:23
@phdthesis{d5987d10-06ae-47bb-9cf6-c137a001b968,
abstract = {{The thesis investigates everyday teaching with digital technology during<br/>the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The pandemic was one of the<br/>world’s largest disruptions to everyday education with both health and<br/>education at stake. With the pandemic control measures affecting upper<br/>secondary education in Sweden, gathering in the classroom cannot be<br/>taken for granted and digital technologies accelerated and intensified<br/>everyday practices. The aim is to explore the relation of teaching and<br/>digital technology. How can we understand the ways in which digital<br/>technology and teaching become jointly experimented with to cope with<br/>pandemic uncertainty?<br/>With an Actor-Network theory (ANT) approach, the thesis puts emphasis<br/>on how everyday teaching holds together at the pandemic intersection of<br/>routine and breakdown. The everyday teaching practices during the<br/>pandemic is an empirical focal point for inquiry into how they become<br/>enacted and, secondly, what the implications are for knowledge<br/>production when examining this novel educational practice with ANT’s<br/>relational materialism. To answer these questions, ethnographic<br/>methods are used with an upper secondary school in Sweden from May<br/>2020 to June 2021. The fieldwork consists of empirical engagements in<br/>school visits, interviews, and online observations. In line with recent<br/>ANT scholarship, the methodological approach is articulated as a care-<br/>ful methodology. It implies tracing vulnerable and stable relations that<br/>enact sociomaterial practice and acknowledging cuts and becoming.<br/>The results show how a manifold of more-than-digital practices enact<br/>everyday teaching. The included studies in the thesis examine<br/>attendability and mundane rituals, lesson enactments of scheduling<br/>practices, and digital platforms that co-produce specific practices while<br/>obscuring others. Teaching in the pandemic challenges taken-for-<br/>granted notions of a rapid transition to distance and online teaching. By<br/>surfacing neglected aspects of everyday teaching with digital technology<br/>the thesis discusses how ‘digitalisation of teaching’ erases the local work<br/>of everyday teaching as an equipped practice. In conclusion, the proposal<br/>is made that maintaining teaching takes into account the materiality,<br/>abilities, care, and vulnerabilities that enact everyday teaching.}},
author = {{Mörtsell, Sara}},
isbn = {{978-91-8070-415-1}},
issn = {{0281-6768}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{135}},
publisher = {{Umeå University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Akademiska avhandlingar vid Pedagogiska institutionen}},
title = {{Maintaining teaching : exploring te(a)ch-abilities with actor-network theory}},
url = {{http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-224628}},
year = {{2024}},
}