Junia de Carvalho Fidelis Braga, School of Letters, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8450-2061
Antônio Carlos Soares Martins, Distance Education, Instituto Federal do Norte de Minas Gerais, Brazil
de Carvalho Fidelis Braga, J., & Soares Martins, A. C. (2024). The use of mobile technologies in post-pandemic times: Teacher agency in the view of the ecological approach Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 15(1), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.37237/150106
Abstract
Digital technologies play a vital role in social, political, and economic relations in contemporary society. These technologies were prevalent during the pandemic, and teachers’ lived experiences through that time can serve as a starting point for post-pandemic reflections. The study aims to investigate: i) the situations and the context that contributed to the current perception about the use of the smartphone for teachers’ education and work, ii) the way inclusive pedagogies can be integrated into the teachers’ praxis to ensure everyone’s access to education and to what extent can smartphones be used to support actions with a view to social transformation. The participants in this study are pre-service language teachers from the School of Letters – Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data was generated through the use of a questionnaire. The findings indicate the indissociable connection between the context and the exercise of teacher agency. Technology in isolation is not a lever for transformation, but mobile technology, when ecologically situated and critically used, can become a force for change.
Keywords: Ecological perspective, agency, post-pandemic times, teacher education, mobile technologies
“I’ve never been a naïve admirer of technology: I don’t deify it on the one hand, nor demonize it on the other. That’s why I’ve always been at peace when it comes to dealing with it. I have no doubt whatsoever about the enormous potential for stimulating and challenging curiosity that technology offers to children and adolescents from the so-called favored social classes.[1]” (Freire, 1996, p. 34)
The circulation of mobile devices and applications in various social practices highlights the potential of these technologies for communication, sharing resources, information, and various types of interaction. As Freire (1996) points out, technology offers enormous potential for stimulating and challenging curiosity, especially for social classes with greater access to such resources. It is therefore necessary to ensure that these resources are also accessible to the less privileged social strata. The author adds that human curiosity, as historically and socially constructed and reconstructed, demands a critical stance in the face of our highly technologized times. He advocates a stance that does not deify technology but does not demonize it either (Freire, 1996). We consider it necessary to recognize the various facets of the use of digital technologies in education. Like any other resource, digital technologies, especially mobile technologies, can foster or hinder the exercise of agency by teachers, students, and other agents in the educational context. Therefore, we need to adopt a critical stance when appropriating these resources in teacher education and professional practices.
Steffensen and Kramsch (2015) argue that ecological theories are useful to rethink the relationship between individuals and the learning environments and to conceptualize the relationship of individuals and technology, objects or artifacts. In this sense, studies on the role of mobile digital technologies in the educational environment can benefit from an ecological approach that takes account of both the numerous factors and the ecosystemic relationships that make up this context. This perspective allows us to understand that it is pointless to adopt positions that deify or demonize technologies. To understand the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning, we believe it is crucial to adopt an ecological perspective that studies agents in their relationship with the social context.
Early studies on the ecological perspective in language teaching and learning context include Kramsch (2002), Leather and van Dam (2003), and van Lier (2004a). These studies consider learning as an emergent phenomenon, triggered by the affordances in the environment, as well as the individual’s perception of these affordances and active participation in their use.
As van Lier (2004a) points out, the ecological perspective is a contextualized or situated form of research in which context is understood not just as something that surrounds a phenomenon, but as a central issue. In this sense, context affords learning opportunities. The author underscores the relevance of affordance as a concept that undergirds the relationship between the individual and the environment, which can either inhibit or foster an action, and learning “emerges as part of affordances being picked up and exploited for further action” (2004, p. 8). The notion of affordance is related to meaning potential and is, therefore, action potential, emerging from our interaction in the social context.
The idea that the environment has meaning potential and that perception and action are interrelated phenomena has served as a starting point for myriad studies in the area. In addition to these discussions that highlight the meaning potential in an environment and possible affordances and actions arising from individuals’ perception of that environment, we were inspired by Biesta and Tedder’s (2015) ecological study of agency, focusing on the relationships forged by teachers. As Priestley et al. (2015) argue, the realization of agency is always informed by past experience and oriented toward the future, involving short-term and long-term goals, values, and aspirations. In addition, agency is always exercised in a concrete situation and is both constrained and driven by the materials and relational resources available to agents. In an ecological approach, these authors understand agency as an emergent phenomenon and not as an individual’s capacity. Agency, therefore, depends on both the conditions under which agents act and the qualities that these agents bring to the situation.
Although there are studies dedicated to the understanding of agency in an ecological perspective, agency is a construct that needs to be better explored, especially regarding the role of digital technologies in the exercise of teacher agency. Based on that, this study seeks to discuss the following questions: i) How do contextual factors influence the perception and action of teachers in initial education regarding the use of smartphones in the educational setting? ii) What is the perception of these teachers regarding the use of smartphones to promote inclusive pedagogies and social transformation?
The proposed discussions, based on the analysis of reports from pre-service teachers, seek to understand what situations and contexts have contributed to these candidates’ current perception of the use of smartphones in their education and professional performance.
Agency in an Ecological Perspective
This investigation is grounded in an ecological perspective, an approach that takes into account the relationships and interactions among elements in the environment or ecosystem, which van Lier considers a complementary extension of sociocultural theory. According to van Lier (2004a, p. 62), the learning context is an activity space “constituted of physical, social and symbolic opportunities for meaning making, and the central notion that drives this meaning making is activity.” The ecological context is both physical and social, and affordance is a key concept in investigating an ecosystem. “Affordance ties perception and attention to activity‚ and relates the agent to the environment in purposeful ways” (van Lier, 2004a, p. 18).
When transposing Gibson’s (1986) concept of affordance to applied linguistics, van Lier (2004a) underscored the interdependence among elements within a given environment. In this vein, affordances are available in the environment, making interaction and action possible. For Gibson (1986, p. 127), affordances are “what [the environment] offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill.” Based on the discussions of van Lier (2004a), Mercer (2012) considers that the concept of affordance is fundamental for understanding agency since affordances “represent the interaction between contextual factors (micro- and macro-level structures, artifacts) and learners’ perceptions of them and the potential for learning inherent in this interaction.” In this way, contexts represent ‘latent potential’ until learners interact, what van Lier (2004a, p. 95) refers to as “relationships of possibilities.” For Mercer (2012, p. 43), “[a]gency thus emerges from the interaction between resources and contexts and the learners’ perceptions and use of them.”
Discussions on agency in applied linguistics include a significant number of studies that focus on learning actions both inside and outside the classroom. Other studies address teacher education and practice regarding the exercise of agency, such as Mercer (2011, 2012, 2018) and Larsen-Freeman (2019). This is the perspective of this study, which seeks to better understand the exercise of agency by pre-service teachers, especially in relation to the appropriation of mobile digital technologies in situated contexts.
For Sang (2020), the notion of teacher agency is strongly associated with the ability to make active choices in educational settings. We share Sang’s (2020, p. 2) ideas that “[i]n the ecological view, agency positions it within the contingencies of contexts in which agents act upon their beliefs, values, and attributes they mobilize in relation to a particular situation.”
Studies on agency, especially those geared to teacher education and practice, have also been discussed from the ecological perspective put forward by Emirbayer and Mische (1998). From this perspective, agents always act through their environment and not merely in their environment. Agency is not seen as an individual capacity, but as a phenomenon that emerges from the relationships established in the environment. It is not something people do, but rather something they achieve. Furthermore, agency denotes a “quality” of the actors’ involvement with temporal relational contexts for action, not a quality of the actors themselves (Priestley et al., 2015). According to Priestley et al. (2015, p. 8), teachers’ past experiences influence today’s agency; likewise, today’s actions and contexts are certain to affect teachers’ future agency. For Priestley and colleagues, the ecological approach to teacher agency offers insights into how teaching ecologies can affect teacher decision-making and actions.
Recent empirical studies present diverse perspectives on the intersection of technology, pedagogy, and learner engagement in educational settings. For example, Kwon et al. (2019) delve into the significance of teachers’ self-efficacy and beliefs as they integrate mobile devices in middle schools, emphasizing the role of self-efficacy as technology is adopted. Chen and Tsai (2021) contribute insights into in-service teachers’ conceptions of mobile technology-integrated instruction. Their findings underscore how teacher-centered to student-centered instructional strategies can unleash the potential of mobile technology to foster student-centered learning environments. Viberg et al. (2023) concentrate on the importance of supporting affect in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), offering theoretical frameworks to facilitate affective self-regulation and harness the emotional affordances of MALL. Lastly, He et al. (2024) adopt an ecological perspective to examine learner agency in peer reviews among Chinese tertiary-level EFL students, revealing the complex interplay between individual beliefs, contextual factors, and instructional affordances, shedding light on the promotion of agency-supportive learning environments. These studies contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamic interactions shaping technology-enhanced learning and offer valuable implications for pedagogical practices in diverse educational contexts.
The Study
This study involved the participation of 56 pre-service teachers from the School of Letters of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). These participants were part of a group of 100 pre-service teachers enrolled in an online discipline on the pedagogical use of technologies taught by the first author of this paper. The participants’ ages ranged between 20 and 52, and their majors included English, French, Italian (as additional languages), Literature, and Portuguese language arts. These pre-teachers agreed to answer a semi-structured e-questionnaire created by the authors and administered in the first semester of 2023. Close-ended questions were demographic and used to learn about the participants’ ages and majors. The open-ended questions were used to generate data regarding i) situations and context that contributed to the current perception about the use of the smartphone for teachers’ education and work, ii) the way inclusive pedagogies can be integrated into the teachers’ praxis to ensure everyone’s access to education and to what extent can smartphones be used to support actions with a view to social transformation. In this paper, we identify these participants’ responses to the open-ended questions by the letter P followed by a number assigned to each participant.
The data analysis followed the parameters and procedures of qualitative research. The analysis included a survey of pre-service teachers’ experiences and attitudes toward the use of mobile digital technologies in their academic or professional practices. These experiences and attitudes were then analyzed through the lens of the ecological approach and the concept of agency in this perspective.
Findings and Discussion
By appropriating the ecological perspective for this study, we turn our gaze to relationships as understood in their situated context. The data for this research was generated in the first and second semesters of 2023, a period in which the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had already been overcome, albeit marked by the effects of the experiences of that period.
In their responses to the questionnaire, the pre-service teachers point to a close relationship between the pandemic and post-pandemic context and their perceptions of the role of mobile technologies in their education and professional practice. They draw on their experiences during the pandemic to express their perceptions of the role of these resources. It is interesting to notice in the following excerpts that their experiences during the pandemic fostered a greater understanding of the potential of smartphones for training and professional practice.
In Excerpt 1, Participant 11 points to the opportunities afforded by the environment at the time, “following up on many events, learning about new work,” and states that the pandemic led this participant to broaden their perception of how mobile technology has contributed to their own teacher education and praxis. This participant further mentions that the discoveries regarding the potential of technologies during the pandemic influenced their appropriation in the post-pandemic period. Like Participant 11, Participants 18 (Excerpt 2) and 20 (Excerpt 3) similarly report experiencing an expanded perception of how mobile technology could be used in their educational practice. In both cases, their experiences with technology during those trying times influenced their post-pandemic appropriation.
These participants’ accounts take us back to van Lier’s (2004a) discussions about the relationships formed in a given context, as is the case with the COVID-19 pandemic, and how these relationships are influenced by spatial and temporal factors that constitute and determine the development of an ecosocial system and by its ripple effects on the current post-pandemic context.
Excerpt 1. P11: I think that before the COVID-19 pandemic, we generally had a more limited perception of the uses of technology. Nowadays, I think that the view that technologies and, in particular, the use of smartphones can contribute to our training and professional performance is something that is widely shared by society. We’ve been able to devote ourselves to many studies, follow up on many events, learn about new work, all through the use of cell phones over the last three years. I think, therefore, that the pandemic and the need for social isolation led us to this realization in the first place, which was later reaffirmed by the discovery that it is possible (and even more economical) to use smartphones for our training.
Excerpt 2. P18: During the pandemic, I was a tutor for online classes taught via WhatsApp, which made me broaden my vision of using apps to teach.
Excerpt 3. P20: Before the pandemic, there was already this discussion about smartphone use. I had an English teacher who even introduced me to Duolingo, and she did the lessons with the class. This encouraged me even more to consolidate my perception of smartphones. It was an interesting class, and everyone participated a lot. The pandemic certainly consolidated it even more, because it was the only way and there’s no going back; the trend is for everything to become more and more technological.
The conditions imposed by the pandemic and the relationships established in that context have made the role of mobile devices in the educational context more salient. The experiences and practices mediated by these devices triggered actions aimed at language teaching and learning during that period, and the recognition of the potential of these technologies in the classroom has fostered new actions in the post-pandemic period, as the following excerpts indicate.
In Excerpt 4, P49 points out that her experience during the pandemic changed her perception of the use of smartphones in her studies at the university. The affordances concerning the ubiquity of smartphones – accessing information quickly, facilitating the search for information, enabling instant communication with peers – are all recognized by the participant. These affordances enabled her to use digital technologies to exercise her agency as a student when engaging in discussions with her classmates, doing quick online searches, or reading articles, among other actions in her academic journey. The participant’s discourse demonstrates the existence of educational initiatives at the university for the pedagogical use of mobile devices. P49’s response about the situations and context that contributed to her current perception of the use of smartphones for education and professional practice reveals the relational nature of agency, considering that it is through interactions with other agents and resources present in the context that the exercise of agency can occur.
Excerpt 4. P49: I believe that the pandemic has strongly contributed to my view of the use of smartphones as a means of study, because before, I used them very little for this purpose, focusing more on using them for fun. During the pandemic, I began to realize that many teachers used their mobile devices as a source of knowledge. In addition, last semester I took a course called “Teaching Reading” and there was a lot of discussion about the use of smartphones in the classroom by teachers and students, facilitating the search for information and inducing learning. Finally, I would like to point out that, for my training, the smartphone helps me to communicate with colleagues, do quick searches on Google, read articles, and so on.
The presence of smartphones in the academic context can foster the exercise of agency by future teachers, considering that the affordances perceived from interactions with these devices in this context can trigger actions. As van Lier (2004b, p. 92) points out, “the notion of affordance is related to meaning potential” from the perspective that “the preconditions for meaning to emerge are action, perception and interpretation, in a continuous cycle of mutual reinforcement it becomes an active relationship, or engagement, with the environment in which we find ourselves.” P23’s response, Excerpt 5, illustrates these issues in relation to the use of smartphones in the post-pandemic period. The possibility of taking advantage of the portability and mobility of the devices, “[the] ease of handling, the convenience of using the device anywhere, without needing wires, or support, just one’s hand and a wireless network,”, and the ubiquity of these devices in P25’s environment “to access the World Wide Web and search, in real time” seem to favor actions that contribute to engagement in their educational activities. Affordances related to the use of devices to access the VOLP (Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa) or carry out an assessment activity, or exchange experiences with another professional via WhatsApp, among others, facilitate the exercise of P23’s agency in academic life.
Excerpt 5. P23: Ease of use, the convenience of using the device anywhere, without the need for wires or support, just holding hands and a wireless network (or data package) to access the world wide web and search in real time for all possible information, from the VOLP (Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language), to carrying out an assessment activity (test) on Moodle or preparing an activity for a lecture. Exchanging experiences with another professional in the field in a video call on Whatsapp or Microsoft Teams is also a plus, as teachers always learn from each other or see flaws in others that can be corrected.
As can be seen from the responses of the pre-service teachers in this study, the situations and the context greatly contributed to their current perception of the use of smartphones for their education and classroom practice and allowed us to identify that present actions are informed by past experiences, including the teacher’s life history, professional history, etc. Accounts by pre-service teachers allow us to interpret that the exercise of agency is often projected onto future actions, as advocated by Biesta and Tedder (2007). This is the case of P25 and P6, who emphasize that experiences during the pandemic have positively influenced the use of mobile devices in the educational context in terms of the exercise of teacher agency through future actions.
Excerpt 6. P25: In our current context, I believe that the pandemic has changed my perception of smartphone use a lot. I currently follow many online courses, which has allowed me to access content on subjects that interest me and that I couldn’t take in person. At the beginning of the pandemic, in particular, UFMG in partnership with Coursera offered the possibility of following 3 courses available on the platform, as well as the iUFMG program offered classes on remote teaching and teaching tools. I believe that these opportunities boosted my interest in looking for other courses and platforms. With regard to my professional career, in recent years I’ve mostly taught online classes and in most cases it wouldn’t be possible to continue teaching classes that weren’t in this format.
Excerpt 7. P6: When I started teaching during the pandemic, I realized how rich the internet is with ideas. […] The internet gives you access to information that you would normally pay for or find difficult to find. A great example of this are books, which are available online and we can read them on our smartphones. We can also make videos available on YouTube so that everyone can watch them and delve deeper into subjects that interest them.
Teacher agency, as discussed by Biesta and Tedder (2015), encompasses the notion that teachers have the capacity to make decisions and autonomous choices within the complex environment that is education. In that vein, teacher agency calls for a profound understanding of the sociocultural context of education and a disposition to become involved in active participation and critical reflection, not only concerning school context, but also about broader social and cultural aspects. These issues can be observed in P31’s account, which underscores the recognition of the role of mobile devices from that participant’s experiences during the pandemic as well as their critical view of the social chasm in connectivity and access to technological resources as experienced by low-socioeconomic status households.
Excerpt 8. P31: The pandemic has affected me too much. I’ve never been exposed to so many forms of digital teaching as I was during the pandemic. As a student, I observed different attempts and ways for teachers to teach, and I understood that smartphones have their function and importance. But at the same time, the use of these devices underscores the social gaps that exist in Brazilian society.
The adoption of non-face-to-face teaching activities mediated by digital technologies was proposed as an alternative for the continuity of school activities during the health restrictions imposed by the context. However, the great regional and socio-economic disparities that exist and the limitations of access for educational institutions and students became even more apparent.
The development of pedagogies aimed at inclusion and social transformation involves the participation and critical reflection of teachers and students on issues that are posed in the social context outside the classroom. As Freire states in a public conversation with Ira Shor, it is necessary “to understand the social context of teaching” (Shor & Freire, 1987, p. 33). According to Freire, the context for social transformation is not confined to the classroom; it extends beyond the school environment. We recognize that technology in isolation is not a lever for transformation, but we understand that mobile technology, used in a critical and ecologically situated way, becomes a force for change.
The research participants’ accounts highlight the role of mobile digital technologies in practices to ensure access to school activities during the pandemic in social contexts with limited access to computers and other technological resources. As Participant 29 points out, the smartphone was an essential tool for ensuring access to school activities for a portion of the population for whom the smartphone was the only digital technology available.
Excerpt 9. P29: During the pandemic, I realized that the use of smartphones was fundamental for students, especially those from disadvantaged social classes, to be able to attend and follow classes. A lot of information could be accessed via smartphone, such as announcements that teachers wanted to pass on to students. A lot of information could be accessed instantly using the internet. WhatsApp groups were created, which facilitated interaction between students who couldn’t meet in person. Many activities could be carried out remotely, saving time in terms of commute. Meetings could also be held on smartphones, which also saves time.
A recurring theme in the responses is the potential of mobile phones to provide quick access to inclusive educational resources. Participant 12 points out that the mobile phone provides access to accessible educational materials that are available in digital format, as well as applications and tools that promote accessibility for students with disabilities.
Excerpt 10. P12: There are many ways to integrate inclusive pedagogy through the use of mobile phones to ensure everyone’s right to education. Some examples are Access to accessible educational materials: it is possible to provide accessible educational materials in digital format, such as audio books, captioned videos, and Braille texts, through educational applications or distance learning platforms. Effective communication: mobile phones can be used to maintain effective communication between teachers, students and their families, allowing the exchange of information on academic progress and the planning of educational activities that meet the individual needs of each student. Flexibility: The use of mobile phones allows for greater flexibility in the way instruction is delivered, enabling students to learn at their own pace and according to their needs, for example, by accessing recorded lessons and taking them at times that suit them best. Accessibility tools: Various applications and tools can be used on mobile phones to help students with disabilities, such as screen readers, virtual keyboards with accessibility features, and other technologies.
These issues are also highlighted by P46, who sees inclusive pedagogical initiatives as a powerful approach to ensuring access to education for all, considering that mobile phones can allow adaptation and personalization to accommodate students with visual, hearing and motor disabilities. Participant 38 highlights the possibility of access to technological resources that can cater to students with specific needs, such as the Libras translator, as an alternative to support the educational process of deaf students.
Excerpt 11. P46: Mobile phones can be customized to meet the learning needs of students with visual, hearing, or motor disabilities. Features such as screen readers, automatic captioning, and voice commands can be used to ensure that content is accessible to all.
Excerpt 12. P38: Technological resources, such as a sign language translator, could facilitate the process of educating deaf students, as well as other examples that show how these resources can provide students with special educational needs with a tool that enables them to acquire content.
Reflections on the use of smartphones to mediate inclusive actions are expanded by some pre-service teachers who mention some actions aimed at social transformation. According to P12, smartphones can be used to support initiatives involving communication and social mobilization, the production of content on relevant social issues, as well as to raise awareness of social issues and promote collective action. The participant concludes that technology alone is not enough to transform society, but the active engagement of individuals and groups has the potential to help achieve social transformation.
Excerpt 13. P12: Mobile phones can be used in a variety of ways to support social change efforts. Some ways include Communication and organizing: Mobile phones allow fast and efficient communication between individuals and groups, enabling the organization of demonstrations, events and social mobilization actions. Recording and disseminating information: Mobile phones have cameras and video editing applications that can be used to record and disseminate information on relevant social issues. Social networking and video sharing platforms can also be used to disseminate this information. Education and awareness: Educational applications and distance learning platforms can be accessed through mobile phones to raise awareness of social issues and promote civic education. Donations and Crowdfunding: Mobile phones can be used to make donations to organizations and social campaigns, and crowdfunding platforms can be used to support specific causes. Participation in petitions and public consultations: many petitions and public consultations can be accessed via mobile, allowing individuals to participate and express their opinions on relevant social issues. However, I think it is important to remember that technology alone is not enough to change society. It requires the active engagement of individuals and groups interested in promoting social change, and the use of mobile phones can be a valuable tool to support and amplify these actions.
We can see from the excerpts that teachers perceive factors that limit inclusion and problematize the vertical use of these technologies in the sense that the more privileged classes have access to these resources while the less privileged do not.
Ensuring access to these technologies for the underprivileged is of great importance. That is why we believe that the integration of mobile digital technologies into teachers’ pedagogical practice has the potential to contribute to the development of inclusive pedagogies with a view to ensuring everyone’s right to education. To this end, it is crucial to understand the context, both inside and outside the classroom, in which students and teachers use these technologies for their teacher education and professional practice.
These technologies have the potential to promote inclusive pedagogies that drive social change. It is critical to recognize the disparities in access to digital technologies and connectivity that exist in our society. Many people still do not have access to mobile digital technologies, which limits their participation in the digital age. Efforts are needed to bridge this gap and ensure that everyone, regardless of their socio-economic situation, has access to the tools and resources needed for transformative education.
Final Remarks
The results of this study have demonstrated the inextricable relationship between context and the exercise of teacher agency and its multifaceted nature, considering that the exercise of teacher agency emerges from the perception of affordances in situated contexts and the actions that result from these affordances.
We agree with van Lier’s (2004a) concept that likens context to an onion. Attempting to uncover a single, definitive essence beneath its layers by peeling them away is impractical, given the continuous presence of layers throughout. Similarly, it is not possible to isolate one singular “real” context beneath all the layers. Instead, each layer contributes to the overall understanding and meaning of the situation, with new layers continually revealing themselves as we delve deeper. In this sense, we understand that context is fundamental in all relationships involving the educational context, including the use of digital technologies. The influence of the context in the exercise of agency has also been observed in He et al.’s (2024) study, whose findings indicate changes in the participants’ beliefs during peer-review activities due to the influence of multiple contextual factors, leading to the fluctuations of their learner agency.
If, on the one hand, van Lier’s (2004a) discussions emphasize the potential for meaning in an environment and the possible affordances and actions that arise from the perception of individuals in relation to that environment, Biesta and Tedder’s (2007) study has given us support to better understand that teacher agency relies on “transformations of contexts-for-action-over time” (p. 136). In this way, we can consider the agency of future language teachers as holistic, connecting their life histories, past and present experiences, and future goals.
The findings from this study suggest that teachers’ experiences during the pandemic have deepened their appreciation of the possibilities offered by smartphones for professional development. It has also expanded their understanding of how mobile technology has contributed to their teacher education and practice. The findings show that the experiences during the pandemic regarding the use of mobile technologies have influenced their use in the post-pandemic period. The circumstances and context significantly shaped teachers’ current perspective on the use of smartphones in teacher education and in classroom activities, leading us to conclude that present behaviors are influenced by past experiences and informed by their personal and professional background.
Based on the findings, it is possible to see the potential of mobile digital technologies for teaching, but there are also issues regarding the accessibility of these devices in less privileged socioeconomic contexts. The integration of mobile devices in the educational context is complex and multifaceted and requires, in addition to teacher education, careful consideration of the context of implementation, taking into account local, regional, and socioeconomic specificities. Technologies can mediate inclusive and transformative pedagogies aimed at empowering agents from different strata of our society, enabling the creation of opportunities for these individuals to act locally or collectively for the development of their education and social emancipation.
Although the focus of this study was not on the integration of mobile devices in pedagogical practices, the pre-service teachers’ voluntary appropriation of mobile devices seems to indicate that these devices can be an alley for student-centered pedagogies in higher education. This is aligned with Chen and Tsai (2021) and other scholars who report on the potential of these devices to foster student-centered learning activities.
Future longitudinal studies on teacher agency could track the development of teacher agency over time, considering how experiences, contexts, and technological advancements shape agency trajectories. Future research could explore inclusive strategies for integrating mobile technologies into education, considering the needs of learners from diverse backgrounds and possessing diverse skills, as well as the challenges encountered in less privileged socioeconomic contexts.
The integration of mobile technologies in education requires a critical reflection on their use and their positive and negative aspects. With a nod to Freire’s (1996) discussions, we understand that technologies are neither entirely good nor entirely bad, and their use must be critically analyzed without adopting positions that deify or demonize these technologies.
Notes on the Contributors
Junia de Carvalho Fidelis Braga is an Associate Professor at the School of Letters of the Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG, Brazil. Her research interests include Agency, Teacher Education, with a focus on Language and Digital Technologies.
Antônio Carlos Soares Martins is a full professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Northern Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is a permanent professor and researcher of the Professional Master’s Degree in Professional and Technological Education (ProfEPT / IFNMG). He has experience in Applied Linguistics, Language and Technology, and Technology in Education, with a focus on teaching and learning.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of FAPEMIG and CNPq for this work.
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[1] Original quotes in Portuguese were translated by the authors of this article.
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