The interdependence of technology, pedagogy, and epistemology: A self-study of my pedagogy of technology teacher education

This research investigates teacher candidates’ theories of knowledge in a technological environment and a post-secondary teacher educator’s pedagogy of technology teacher education. This dissertation attends to the pedagogical interdependence of purposeful technological environments with a view to narrowing the epistemic gap between students and teachers through the design of educational technology within an undergraduate course. The research uses self-study methodology to investigate and improve my pedagogy of technology teacher education and simultaneously advance the fields of educational technology and learning design and technology teacher education. Self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (S-STTEP) is a type of educational research methodology that is concerned with the understanding and improvement of one’s practice and the relationship between teaching and learning in teacher education. A four-part analytical framework in this self-study is used to provide an account of my practice as a technology teacher educator through an analysis of my espoused theories (Argyris & Schön, 1974) (the explicit reasons we give for our actions) and my theories-in-use (Argyris & Schön, 1974) (implicit theories that explain how we behave). The analytical framework coalescences my professional knowledge in an epistemology of practice to help me articulate my assertions for actions as a technology teacher educator using maker pedagogy and experiential learning as technological and educative learning environments. The study of practice as an epistemic source of knowledge supports accesses to one’s authority of practice, which is an ontological lens used to study what resides in knowing-in-action. An authority of practice is the warrant that leads to an understanding of professional identity and professional knowledge, and how it develops and is reframed. The epistemic study of practice in this research makes contributions to educational research in the professional development of the teacher educator through the self-study of educational practices and actions.