THE IMPACT OF MINDSETS ON LITERACY TEACHING IN HOMESCHOOLING ENVIRONMENTS: A CHAT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The gap between actual and expected use of technology in education prompted an exploration of my suspicions that human thoughts, feelings, and experiences with technology are central to the problem. While many internal factors influence teachers, this study explores the impact Lankshear and Knobel's mindsets have on teachers' decisions to implement digital technologies in education. Specifically I ask how mindsets about knowledge production and technology are mediators of, and mediated by, the activity of literacy teaching and learning in homeschooling environments. I reached over a hundred homeschooling parents through network sampling and a hundred parents submitted a survey designed to place them in one of four quadrants on a grid, assigning them a Mindset 1 rating and Mindset 2 rating. I randomly selected volunteers for each quadrant. I coded and analyzed nineteen interviews according the elements in the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) heuristic and Lankshear and Knobel's mindsets. Findings indicate that mindsets do mediate technology use in literacy teaching; educators with high Mindset 1 (M1) ratings engage in more traditional educational methods, using technology for enhancing traditional literacy practices. Educators with high Mindset 2 (M2) ratings only implement technology for transformative practices if they also hold a low M1 rating. Regarding transformative use of technology (an M2 outcome), educational institutions must decide whether they want technology to transform instructional processes, literacy outcomes, or products or both.