Professional identity and teachers' learning technology adoption

A review of adopter-related antecedents

Abstract

This paper reviews adopter-related antecedents of learning technology adoption by higher education teachers. We, drawing on findings from Management and Psychology, Computing, and Education, suggest an adopter-centered perspective on teachers' learning technology adoption and identify work-related, technology-related, and teaching-related antecedents, which reflect aspects of teachers' professional identity. We further argue that teachers' professional identity shapes their perception of innovation characteristics, which in turn affects learning technology adoption. The paper concludes by highlighting that future research and practice should explore aspects of professional identity in order to more fully explain learning technology adoption, and should facilitate the adoption process through addressing the reconstruction of professional identity.