Integrating ICT without throwing the baby out with the bathwater

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of how novice schoolteachers experience the usefulness of ICT skills in their work context as professionals in compulsory schools in Norway. The first part describes the general framework for teaching ICT in schools in which ICT is one of five basic prioritised skills and introduces the analytical framework that we apply in our analysis. This framework has three dimensions: technology, pedagogy and organisation. To guide our analysis, we use the critical-constructivist theory on categorical formation. The second part is an empirical analysis of the conditions for teaching ICT in schools. This analysis describes novice teachers, their digital literacy, their teaching practice with ICT, and how they experience the conditions in which ICT is used to support learning activities in classrooms. The findings are discussed in relation to the manner by which society incorporates ever more integration of ICT into all different areas of life. More specifically, the way that the Norwegian school system has tried to meet this challenge through the ideal of integrating the use of ICT in teaching and learning activities in schools is documented. This paper provides insight into the interplay between student teachers’ ICT training and novice teachers’ work context.