Dilemmas in the integration of technologies in a Primary school classroom: the dialogue between teacher agency, curriculum and digital technologies

ABSTRACT The current study describes and analyse the day-to-day integration of digital technologies in a Year Three Primary Education classroom in Spain. The process of integrating technologies in the classroom and the difficulties and contradictions encountered are analysed in accordance with two key theories: teacher agency and the prescribed curriculum conveyed through textbooks. It is a qualitative research with an intrinsic case study, consisted of participant and non-participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups and document analysis. Results show that interactions between various personal, contextual and structural aspects, and their various combinations, forges and restructures teachers’ ICT practices, revealing the difficulties teachers experience in introducing technology-based innovations to the current curriculum. The observation of the process exposes a series of beliefs and contradictory practices that compromise the teacher’s agency in terms of her capacity to meet her initial objective of autonomously managing the curriculum.