Vertical and Horizontal Discourse: A Bernsteinian Perspective of Preservice Teachers’ Conceptualizations of Using iPads in Early Elementary Teaching Environments

Policymakers’ neoliberal education reforms, which define education through economic rather than democratic principles, continue to promote the integration of mobile devices into early childhood classrooms to provide students with new learning opportunities while preparing them for the job market. Although many schools have begun integrating such devices into their classrooms, research has highlighted that teachers find it challenging to incorporate mobile devices into their teaching, even when they are trained to do so. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the challenges preservice teachers face when implementing technology in their current and future classrooms through a sociological lens. Specifically, we employed Bernstein’s notion of vertical and horizontal discourse to examine a sample of first-semester preservice teachers’ conceptualizations of using iPads in their current and future teaching environments. Our findings highlight the challenges teacher educators face when supporting preservice teachers in moving beyond deep-seated horizontal understandings of what school and teaching should look like. Our findings also suggest that teacher educators have a responsibility to strengthen preservice teachers’ vertical discourse around teaching so that they will engage in pedagogical practices that go beyond a set of skills to be acquired and replicated with technology or otherwise.