How May Teacher Learning Be Promoted for Educational Renewal with IT?

Abstract

This chapter takes an instrumental perspective with the goal of empowering teachers and other leaders with an understanding of the ecology of educational renewal with IT. The diversity of factors that impact a teacher's adoption of IT are envisioned in layers that frame perspectives of the classroom as nested within the school, local area, region, and the global biosphere of education. Theoretical models are used to explain the multi-staged processes and illustrated with research. For example, models of the adoption of IT in a classroom emphasize each teacher's ownership of the innovation process. In addition, simultaneous renewal of teacher education and K-12 schools involves overlapping ecologies in multiple organizations, leading to additional challenges for teacher learning with IT in preservice teacher education. The chapter concludes with a recommendation to incorporate ecological perspectives in the design and reporting of research in this area.