In the information era, with the new demand for work force for the information society, the education gained a new dimension, and needs are changed in coordination with these developments to prepare the students for the information society. Otherwise, the societal gaps will increase in the information society as the results of educational implementations of 20th century (Reigeluth & Joseph, 2002; Sezal, 2005). In 1999, the European Commission represented its “eEurope” plan to carry out the transformation into the information age, both within the Union and within the candidate countries. To be able have the most competitive knowledge-based economy, “eEurope” plan and ICT related educational strategies have been given special attention. (European Commission, 2002). Similarly, through the ‘National Education Development Project’, the Higher Education Council (HEC) in Turkey redesigned the teacher-education programs’ curricula to improve the quality of and to integrate ICT into teacher education programs. One of the implications of this project was to establish instructional technology rooms for all basic education schools (HEC, 1998). Another implication is opening new departments called Computer Education and Instructional Technology (CEIT) to train computer teachers (information technology teacher) for K-12 schools, and instructional designers who are capable of integrating technological advances with theoretical knowledge. The graduate of these departments have started working as computer teachers in K-12 schools in 2002. However, there have been fewer studies that examine the graduate of these departments, and the existing studies do not examine the factors that affect them performing their profession from variety of perspectives. To improve the curriculum of CEIT departments, to shed light in the factors that affect computer teachers’ professional performances, and to contribute to technology integration efforts in education, empirical findings are needed about graduates of CEIT departments. Therefore, this study aims to investigate computer teachers’ profession from several perspectives at K-8 level. The following research questions guided this study: (1) How do computer teachers perceive CEIT departments’ goals, curriculum, facilities, advantages and limitations in preparing their students for their profession? (2) How do the computer teachers perceive the other subject area teachers’ and administrators’ understanding of their profession? (3) How do school principals and other subject area teachers perceive computer teachers’ roles? (4) What are the computer teachers’ opinions about the schools’ facilities, and the support provided by the school administration to perform their profession? (5) What are the computer teachers’ opinions of the enablers and the barriers in performing their teaching profession?

This study is a descriptive study. The participants of this study are 284 computer teachers, 284 administrators, 281 social studies teachers, 275 science teachers and 279 mathematics teachers at K-8 schools that have at least one computer teacher in the four largest cities in Turkey. The data were collected through three questionnaires that consisted of “multiple choice items”, “5 point Likert-type items” and “open-ended questions”. Computer teachers’ questionnaire consisted of 46 questions with four sections, the administrators’ questionnaire consisted of 20 questions with two sections, and other subject area teachers’ questionnaire consisted of 21 questions with two sections. The data gathered through the questionnaire were analyzed through descriptive statistics and content analysis. The analyzed data were interpreted under the themes that constitute this research study.

In many EU countries, technology is integrated into the curriculum by implementing “teaching with technology” approach rather than “teaching about technology” approach (Yildirim, Goktas, 2007). The findings of this study will illuminate how “teaching about computers” in the scope of computer course at K-8 level attributed to integration of technology into education at K-8 level. CEIT departments’ curriculum development efforts were done mostly based on the literature in the related field rather than empirical findings. In this respect, the findings of this study will provide insights to the curriculum development efforts to improve the programs. Another implication of this study is that the findings from this study will provide insight in acknowledgement of “computer teaching” as a teaching profession in K-8 level.