There is, in many countries and schools, a need for transformation of teacher’s educational practises, as we enter the 21-centruy. Societal changes and new generations of students with new experiences of information and communication technologies, challenges schools and teachers, whether they take the challenge or not. The object of this paper, at the pre conference, is to discuss methodological issues regarding a case study carried out at a Swedish lower secondary school, in the area of educational innovation, focusing on teacher’s developmental processes regarding ICT integration in education. An abstract is submitted to the main conference based on the same study, but there focus is on tentative results rather than methodology. At present I have two preliminary research questions: what characterises the developmental processes of a school, aiming at ICT-rich educational practice and what further questions could be raised, regarding teacher’s professional developmental processes in the area of ICT integration? My intention is to take a holistic approach and analyse this process within a theoretical framework of activity theory. Professional development could be regarded as a question about change and learning to expand existing knowledge. What is learned, could then be seen as something not yet there, and therefore learned as it develops in activity in complex relations within activity systems. These are, according to Engeström, collective, tool-mediated and object oriented. They are also regarded as multi-voiced, and they are formed and developed over time. The developmental process is driven by structural tensions, within and in between activity systems and these systems expand, in long, transformative cycles.

A case study is carried out during the academic year of 08/09. The school was chosen, since it was considered an innovative school with an ambition to develop teacher’s practices in relation to ICT. The object of this first fieldwork is to develop understanding for basic challenges confronting a school with such an ambition, and how they are met. This is partially done following a film project. It is my intention to continue following the developmental process among teachers at this school. At present, two visits have been made and a third is planned during springtime, each for a period of two days. Methods used are interviews with teachers and head teachers and observations, including participation in meetings and general school activities with focus on ICT-projects and developmental efforts. Policy documents and curricula have been gathered and I have followed a school blog, related to the film project.

It is still early to say, but I believe that, what takes place at this school will eventually give us some new and deepened understanding of the transformation of educational practices in general and teachers professional roles and objects in particular. At this present point in my empirical studies, I will hopefully be able to describe some of the challenges that this school and these teachers encounter and discuss some of the methodological challenges.