Web-Based Education Accountability System and Organizational Changes: An Actor-Network Approach

The learning and accountability needs in a teacher education department drove the development of a novel, Web-based education accountability system (EAS). To fit the EAS with the organization, actor-network theory (ANT) was used to guide the social and technological development. In the course of this fitting, a novel multi-dimensional perspective to ANT was formalized. Four dimensions of organizational culture, power/politics, process/operation and profession were used. Participant observation, field notes and interviews were used to surface negotiations during periods of controversy to reveal how standard teacher education practices were created and recreated. Detailed translations occurring at multiple levels provided insight into the technical agency of the EAS and how its inscriptions shaped the emergence of a socio-technical information systems (IS) solution for a teacher education program.