Teacher roles and adoption of educational technology in the Chinese context

In the new digital and knowledge society, education is facing great challenges from traditional ways of instruction and learning towards more innovative ways. It also raises a great demand for the transformation of teacher roles from the traditional knowledge transmitter to a new set of roles. This research focuses on perceptions of teacher roles and their impacts on the adoption of educational technology in schools in a Chinese context. Participants in this study are 125 primary and secondary teachers in a Chinese school in Beijing. Five types of teacher roles (expert, authority, model, facilitator and delegator) are reflected. The results show that teachers of facilitator/expert profile and facilitator/delegator profile are more inclined to adopt educational technology. The current development of ICT use in teaching and learning as well as challenges faced in the Chinese educational context are presented.