Promoting Teacher Confidence With Technology Through Risk Taking and Organisational Changes: A Welsh Perspective

There is no doubt that technology is a powerful pedagogical tool, playing an important role in learning within and outside of the curriculum at varying levels of education. In Wales, the recent curriculum changes, and the emergence of the Digital Competence Framework (DCF) means that primary and secondary schools and teachers across are now responsible for creating “learners [who can] thrive in an increasingly digital world”. To nurture digital competence in school pupils in Wales, we need to understand how teachers feel about using technology in their teaching practice and how confident they are with promoting and cultivating digital competency amongst their learners. This paper aims to give a snapshot of how teachers are feeling, particularly after a disruptive shift to moving learning and teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many teachers, this dramatic shift in their practice took them totally out of their comfort zones and presented many challenges along the way. Through findings from a longitudinal qualitative study with one school in Wales, specifically through a series of semi-structured interviews, we learn that taking risks is an integral part of changing teachers’ practice with technology. Whilst COVID-19 presented many challenges for teachers, positive experiences during this period has the potential to foster confidence amongst teachers for the future. The question now is, how do we support teachers to take risks with technology and make this change in their practice?