Teachers and Technologies in Brazilian Schools: a Study from the Perspective of Media Ecology

The theoretical perspective of media ecology, addressed by McLuhan (1962), Postman (1970) and Ong (1982), interprets media as immersive cultural environments, in which relational aspects gain relevance. Shifting focus from the effects of media to languages that comprise it, this approach seeks to understand the significant changes that technologies bring about in all human spheres. The objective of this article is to investigate the integration of technologies in the school environment from the perspective of media ecology. It presents a qualitative study undertaken at eight public primary schools at the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, involving 80 research subjects, including teachers, principals and educational supervisors. The results show the difficulty school actors have in recognizing and dealing with technology’s presence at school.