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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0804-7062

Date Available

4-25-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Curriculum and Instruction

Faculty

Janice Almasi

Faculty

Ryan Crowley

Abstract

In this post-COVID-19 society students are strongly influenced by their use of digital text and electronic devices. The assumption of the study was that if students spend time with devices and digital text that it might be possible for them to develop relationships with the non-human actors that exist as part of the learning environments in schools. This  interpretive case study rooted, in Posthumanist ideology, used Latour’s Actor Network Theory to approach data collection.

A comparative approach was adopted for this interpretive case study research and data were collected in three stages: initial classroom observation and analysis to determine the case and then focused observations of the three case participants and finally semi-structured interviews with the three case study participants, all eighth-grade students, and finally, semi-structured interviews with a parent of the participants.

Through the use of inVivo coding and domain analysis the findings identified four relationships that students have with devices: (a) Productivity and Learning Relationship; (b) Communication and Entertainment Relationship; (c) Comfort and Security Relationship; and (d) Care and Responsibility Relationship. These relationships demonstrated a strong sense of companionship between the human actor (Student) and non-human actors (Devices and electronic texts) suggesting that students have nuanced and complicated relationships with devices. Future research would need to be done to determine how these relationships might influence learning in specific courses.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.121

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