Negotiation of Students' Cell Phone Use in the Classroom: Reshaping the Teacher-Students Relationship

• In Event: Teachers' Approaches to Shaping Professional Environments

Abstract

This study explores how 10th graders (15-16 years old) use and negotiate their cell phones in the classroom with teachers. Over a three-month ethnographic study, fieldwork took place at two Chilean state-funded schools. Participants observations in classes, group interviews with students and individual interviews with teachers were undertaken. Using a sociocultural and relational theoretical perspective, this study shows that the phone negotiation in the classroom is a fluid and improvised practice between teachers and students, which is organised differently depending on the kind of use is given to phones. Findings suggest that a more coordinated and inclusive approach to define regulations and possible pedagogical practices in the classroom is needed.

Author

• Paulina Andrea Ruiz-Cabello, University of Bristol