Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Educational technology associations as change agents : A case study

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  • This research addressed the role of educational technology associations as change agents within education with particular emphasis on issues of advocacy and leadership. Using a poststructural feminist lens and the metaphor of interview and analysis as storytelling, it explored the perspectives of nineteen individuals belonging to a national level educational technology association. This research addressed a single research question: How do the various stakeholders (staff, volunteers, and members) in an educational technology association describe the organization's contribution to the educational system in terms of its role as a change agent? Data for this research were collected over twelve months and were taken from four main sources: the researcher's journal, individual interviews, observations, and association publications (both internal and external). Data from the interviews, observations, and documents were analyzed over the course of the year-long data collection process using a modified constant comparative method. The trustworthiness of this research should be considered in light of poststructural epistemological concepts of substantive contribution, aesthetic merit, reflexivity, impact, and expression of reality. The results indicated that the participants have a complex relationship with their educational technology association and that ideas of change agency, advocacy, and leadership play an important role in how they perceive that organization and how they experience their own involvement with it. Regardless of the nature of their engagement, the association's staff, volunteers, and members perceive it as an instrument of and an ally for improving teaching and learning through the medium of educational technology. They also experience their connection to the association as both a support for and reflection of their professionalism. The participants believe that the association offers a number of benefits that make membership worthwhile and at the same time, provides important benefits to the discipline and to education as a whole. They also perceive their association as a leader and an advocate for educational technology, not just as a teaching tool, but as a medium for transforming teaching and learning.
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