’It’s not just me but the school where I work’: how school context influenced seven Australian early career teachers’ design of technology-integrated learning

Factors influencing how teachers integrate digital technologies in their teaching comprise both individual (e.g. knowledge and attitudes) and contextual (e.g. support provided). What is not well understood is how individual and contextual factors interact to influence early career teachers’ (ECTs) design of technology-integrated learning (TIL). This study examined in situ how seven early career teachers from different schools designed learning experiences enabled by digital technologies. Activity theory was used to uncover what influenced their design decisions. Findings show that how an ECT’s knowledge and experience with TIL interacted with contextual factors were important influences on how ECTs designed TIL. Contextual factors were found to have both an enabling and constraining influence on ECTs’ practice, regardless of their existing TIL knowledge and skills. The key message from this study is that developing TIL design capabilities requires more than just focusing on the individual. It requires a holistic school approach.