Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Educational Technology Integration in K-12 Education: A Grounded Theory Study of Teachers’ Conceptual, Pedagogical, Cultural, and Political E-learning Dilemmas

Investigations into learning practices have converged to support the notion that digital learning technologies can be beneficial to educational experiences. However, turning a traditional classroom into a technology-integrated learning environment presents many challenges for teachers and other related stakeholders. In this paper, we attempt to systematically investigate the dilemmas from teachers’ perspectives. Adopting a qualitative research design, we invited teachers from fourteen different primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong to hear their perspectives about their challenges when teaching in technology-mediated environments. Based on Windschitl’s framework, the dilemmas gathered from teachers’ interviews can be classified as the conceptual, pedagogical, cultural, and political frames of reference in adopting educational technology. All of these influenced teachers’ willingness to adopt digital learning tools into their teaching. Other implications for educational technology practices are also discussed. All in all, these findings inform scalable Information and Communication Technology solutions and teacher professional development strategies to optimize technology integration. We hope this paper will stimulate further discussion on how to facilitate teachers’ implementation of educational technology, in particular, assisting them to overcome the identified dilemmas.