Teacher Agency and the Digital Technologies Curriculum in Disadvantaged Australian Schools

Access and usage of digital technologies is a marker of advantage in Australian schools. This study aims to identify how context impacts upon the enactment of the teaching and leading of the Digital Technologies Curriculum in schools labelled as disadvantaged. The study used a four-fold heuristic of contexts to analyse the work of educators in schools. The study found that external contexts structurally shape the teachers’ agency with the Digital Technologies Curriculum. The study revealed that the enactment of the Digital Technologies Curriculum in disadvantaged contexts was enabled by additional supports and nuanced approaches. Successful enactment can occur when teacher and leader agency outperform the impact of structural disadvantage.