This is a qualitative study into university teachers’ responses to e-learning
technology (eLT), situated within the debate about how greater use of eLT
might affect universities’ role in Society.
The context is the increased use of eLT in Higher Education and its promotion
by various stakeholders. Its effect on students has been well researched but
less may be found relating to teachers. The movement may therefore be
insufficiently informed about eLT’s effect on university teachers, leading to
potentially negative consequences.
My methodology, inspired by Kvale’s traveller/researcher metaphor, is based
on interviews and thematic analyses of their transcripts. Participants’ reactions
to the technologies they use are explored in semi-structured, in-depth
interviews where the interviewees describe their feelings on a range of issues
related to their use of eLT.
Through these conversations I find that, whilst most of the interviewees see
themselves as technophiles, they are nonetheless experiencing issues which
could adversely affect their teaching. I group these into three themes: control,
privacy and knowledge ownership and explore how they may be interrelated
through underlying ‘meta-themes’ related to teachers’ feelings of identity and
trust.
I also discover that many of these feelings are not overt, even to the teachers
concerned, but only become apparent in certain circumstances. The
implications are that critical decisions about technology and teachers’ wellbeing,
if taken only on the strength of surveys or structured interviews, may be
ill founded and lead to unwelcome consequences.
I conclude that teachers’ responses to eLT need to be understood from a
plural perspective, including considerations of trust and identity, if eLT-based
practices are to be successfully introduced into Higher Education. If teachers
lose their trust (in their students, management or peers) and question their
professional identity, their ability to give of their best to their teaching may
suffer, with potentially detrimental effects on the sector
