ABSTRACT
The initial ideas for this article were presented at a seminar at the University of Warwick sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in May 1999. However, its gestation spanned a two-year period and it was only completed and published in a special issue of the Journal for IT in Teacher Education on ICT and Pedagogy in 2001. At the time when I wrote it I had recently moved to Manchester Metropolitan University and, relieved of management responsibilities, had been able to spend time exploring sociocultural and activity theory. The article draws on these ideas and other theories from philosophy and psychology as well as my practical experience from research projects over the previous fi fteen years. Writing it gave me an opportunity to locate my research practice in a clear methodological framework and provided a fi rm basis for taking my work forward in subsequent years.
