Very little is known about how teachers' conceptualizations of digital technology and their uses of the technology evolve and relate. Yet knowing about and understanding teachers' conceptions and uses of digital technology are essential for learning how teachers integrate it effectively for student learning. By applying sociocognitive and sociocultural (i.e., the New Literacies Studies approach) perspectives to the study of digital technology use in classrooms, this study examine the conceptions about and uses of digital technology in English writing instruction among three teachers in Malaysia. Three questions framed the study: (1) How do Malaysian teachers conceptualize digital technology and its use in English writing instruction? (2) How do Malaysian teachers use digital technology in English writing instruction? (3) How do Malaysian teachers' conceptualizations of digital technology relate to and affect their use of digital technology in English writing instruction? Working within the tradition of descriptive and exploratory qualitative research, this study employed a multiple case study approach. Three teachers from suburban/rural secondary schools in an economically-underdeveloped state in Malaysia were participants. The teachers were surveyed, interviewed, and observed about their conceptualizations and uses of digital technology in English writing instruction. Artifacts from their English writing instruction were collected, analyzed, and triangulated with the survey, interview, and observational data. The data were analyzed using within-case analysis, cross-case analysis, narrative discourse analysis, and constant-comparative analysis. Results of the study indicate that while digital technology was found to be helpful and convenient, teachers reported contested conceptions of and ongoing concerns about the use of digital technology and its effectiveness in English writing instruction. In all, the teachers were balancing their contested conceptions of digital technology in order to use fully the advantages (i.e., affordances) and minimize the disadvantages (i.e., constraints) of digital technology in their English instruction. These contested conceptions were not only central to their psychological aspects, such as their personal values on and experiences with digital technology, but also the social and contextual aspects, such as their students' high proficiency with digital technology tools' (and their misuse of them) and the schools' access to or restraints from digital technology tools and support. These psychological and social contexts created a web of conundrums made of strings of affordances and constraints, access and restraints, and dual identities as digital natives and digital immigrants that the teachers had to consider carefully in their uses of digital technology in their English writing instruction.These contested visions offer great significance to Malaysian education, especially with the role of the English language and with digital technology as a culture and important mediating tools for education. As I discuss about these contested visions in the Malaysian education in general, and in English writing instruction in particular, I also discuss the efforts that should be put forth in enhancing their advantages and in limiting their disadvantages. In doing so, I provide suggestions for the social implications of digital technology and English/literacy instruction; implications for the educational system and its policies; implications for instructional pedagogy; implications for future research; and implications for research methodology.
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