The Role of ITs in Improving Teaching Quality in Schools: A Multicase Study

Abstract

In this paper we reflect, starting from empirical data, on the impact of Information Technology (IT) in curriculum development and in shaping teachers’ professional identities. Based on two case studies carried out in two Secondary-Education classrooms located in southern Spain, we study the use that each of these teachers made ​​of IT and how their identities are reflected in the use of these tools and, at the same time, how to conform them. The first case is an ilustration of transition from a content-based curriculum appproach to another centered on students mainly by means of IT. As for the second, it shows how these resources allow this teacher to deepen the democratic principles of teaching he uses in class and on the Internet too, by and large through social networks. Based on our findings we conclude that, at least in the case of these two teachers, ITs represent a clear improvement in the quality of their teaching when they are focused on the educational application of the resource rather than on its technical side.