How does the move to technology classrooms challenge and change the identity of older, veteran teachers?

The benefits of technology for student learning and professional practice are widely claimed, however, the tensions teachers may feel between old practices and new demands are experienced differently, depending on whether they are early career or veteran teachers. The introduction of technology can have a brutal effect on the identity of workplace veterans, who have experienced many years of success working without technology. These teachers have spent many years developing their subject matter, pedagogical and didactical knowledge (Beijaard, Verloop, & Vermunt, 1999) prior to the introduction of technology in schools. While they often perceive themselves as accomplished, expert teachers (Beijaard et al, 1999) they are under pressure to take up new practices, (such as those used by some younger, less experienced teachers), now that technology focused classrooms hold currency in schools.

 Some writers in this field have suggested that teachers need to acknowledge and mourn the passing of how things used to be and embrace technology and the many pedagogical benefits they offer. However, the uptake of technology is much more complex than learning technology skills. A critical stance argues that teaching is a social practice and expectations for erasing the past and taking on the new is a clinical, unhelpful and unlikely proposal (Selwyn, 2011). Research drawn outside the field of educational technology shows that teachers can feel personally, morally, and professionally assaulted by new initiatives imposed on their practice (Beck & Young, 2005; Barrett 2008). 

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