Abstract:

Introduction:
Great expectations have been placed on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to change and improve education (OECD, 2010). In research (Olofsson et al, 2015) as well as in evaluations (Wastiau et al, 2013; OECD, 2015) the pictures seem to be of expectations not yet realised. To be able to change practice one key issue is teachers’ professional development (TPD) (Vrasidas, 2015). TPD has often been conducted as courses or programs (Helleve, 2010). In several cases there has been emphases made on teachers´ collegial learning, for instance in learning communities of different kinds (Lindberg & Olofsson, 2010). This paper investigates another way of stimulating TPD in the area of ICT in education by drawing on the works of Sannino (2011) and Engeström et al, (1996) among others.

Aim:
The aim of this paper is to present the interview model used for interviewing teachers concerning ICT in education as model also for teachers´ professional development in the area of ICT. Further to present some early results and discuss the limit and possible strengths of this model.

Method:
Based on Sannino (2016) this paper establish a space for development within the frames of group-wise interview sessions and double stimulation. In the sessions the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) model (Mishra & Koehler, 2009) was introduced as a specific tool for discussion. The model combines knowledge in three different domains, establishing seven different kinds of knowledge understood as crucial in understanding the role and possibilities of ICT in education. Departing from the model in the interviews the teachers developed ideas of how ICT can be seen as a possible tool within their subject area. By interviewing teachers in groups where the common denominator is the school subject they teach, the interviews took the form of a collegial conversation with the subject, pedagogy, technology and its interrelated parts as the core.

Participants:
Participating in the interviews were seven different groups of teachers from three different upper secondary schools. These schools take part in a four year research project on ICT in education and they have all in some way distinguished themselves as successful in this area. In all 21 teachers representing four different subject areas participated in the interviews.

Theoretical perspective:
The cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2015) was used for analysis. Focus was on how the teachers understand the object of the activity, where the activity is seen as teaching with ICT. With the TPACK model as framework for the interviews, the teachers moved from content through pedagogy to technology in the interviews, making the object of the activity of teaching with ICT a question of negotiating its meanings.

Preliminary results:
The teachers moved from viewing their core competence as content-oriented towards an understanding of their competences and skills as partly dependent on pedagogy and the ICT tools they used. In each subject, the object of the activity of teaching with ICT differs according to the subject-specific logics that the teachers seem to hold. Digital competence and skills were expressed differently by different groups, but for each group their competence and skills in this area were more and more elaborated and expressed throughout the interviews and the TPACK framework guided the teachers towards mutual collective understanding and individual growth.

Keywords:

Digital Competence, Group interviews, Information and communication technology, Professional development.