The place of ICT in teaching and learning continues to be fundamental, especially in knowledge-based economies. With the increase of social media, MOOCs and location-aware technology it is timely to re-examine the perceptions of Pre-Service Teacher Education tutors’ perceptions of the role of ICT in the professional education of student teachers. Some may see their role as ‘functionalist’, preparing student teachers to use ICT within current school curricula; others may consider their role in a more strategic way to include a critique of existing policies and practice, while in some instances tutors may regard their role as ‘transformative’ by enabling students to support new ways of learning through embracing highly innovative approaches with societal impact. However to what extent are these ‘models’ or paradigms evidenced in the pedagogy of the ITE tutor? To date little empirical evidence exists to address this question, nor have other models of practice been identified. The objective of the research was to investigate the attitudes and dispositions of pre-service Teacher Educators in Ireland and NI when embedding technology into their teaching, and the extent to which institutions can indirectly impose barriers to transformative practices.
This study uses The UNESCO Competency framework For Teachers as the lens for analysing the successive stages of a teacher educator’s pedagogy in using ICT ranging from Technology Literacy through Knowledge Deepening and finally to Knowledge Creation.