Imagined and actual practices using ICT: incongruity and consequences for inclusion

nformation and Communication Technologies (ICT) play an increasing role in public schools as a whole; at the same time, ICT is championed as part of a proposed solution (in Danish educational policies) to strengthen inclusion of children with various difficulties in ordinary classes. However, the vision of ICT as a solution rests upon the teachers’ ability to implement ICT into their teaching methods in ways that are supportive and inclusive. Furthermore, the general perspective on ICT is that it is a tool that mediates between a user and that user’s intention to achieve some specific aim. In relation to inclusion, this means that ICT is used as a tool to bridge the gap produced by a child’s disability and mediate between the child and learning. However, recent research shows that ICT has multiple representations and also emerges as an actor in its own right in educational practices. Another research trend characterizes included children as being in difficult situations and contexts rather than having inherent disabilities. From this perspective, ICT becomes one element of a contextual modification that alters the difficult situation and allows the child to participate in ordinary class activities. Working from these premises, this paper presents the context, methodology, and findings of a case study into ICTs role as an actor in the inclusion and exclusion of children in grade one. In the case study, we find an incongruity between the teachers understanding of technology when interviewed and the teachers actual teaching use of technology under observation; what may be described as a tool on the theoretical plane becomes a dynamic force in the social structure of the real-world classroom. We also find that this incongruity goes unnoticed by the teacher. We argue that the failure to notice this discrepancy may lead to a lack of guidelines and scaffolding of the pupils’ collaborative work using ICT, ironically leading to exclusion rather than inclusion. Finally, we discuss possible interventions that may support the teachers’ reflections on ICT in practice and alleviate ICT incongruities.