Technical and Vocational Teachers' Conceptions of ICT in the Workplace: bridging the gap between teaching and professional practice

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study, undertaken from a phenomenographic perspective that examines teachers' conceptions of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the workplace. Twenty-three teachers from three Technical and Further Education institutions in Australia participated in semistructured in-depth interviews where they discussed their experiences regarding how ICT is being used in the professional workplaces for which they prepare their students. Interviews were analyzed using an iterative process. The outcomes revealed that ICT in the workplace is conceived in three qualitatively different ways: using ICT for various regular work-related tasks; helping accomplish a job more effectively; and using ICT as an essential tool in professional activities. Three dimensions of variation—accessing and receiving information, communication, and professional development—were identified and explored to establish relationships among the categories of description. These findings provide useful knowledge for minimizing the gap between teaching in vocational institutions and workplace practices. They inform ICT integration in vocational education programs and Technical and Further Education teachers' professional development.

Keywords

phenomenography teachers' ICT conceptions ICT in workplace career and technical education (CTE)technical and vocational education (TVE)

Introduction

In Australia, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) is the main provider of vocational education. Teachers in TAFE, as in the rest of the tertiary education, are experiencing increasing pressures to use ICT in teaching due to advancement of technology, institutional educational innovation and improvement initiatives, changing students' expectations, and other social demands (Bliuc, Casey, Bachfischer, Goodyear, & Ellis, 2012; Khan, 2015). In light of these pressures, the potential benefits of ICT-enhanced teaching (e-learning, blended learning, mobile learning, etc.) are well recognized in TAFE institutions, and therefore, many of the TAFE institutions have already incorporated ICT into their teaching (Armatas & Papadopoulos, 2013; Collins, 2013). The value of ICT is not only recognized for its pedagogical benefits in TAFE education but also is recognized for its role in professional workplace activities. For instance, during the last few decades, ICT has entered many areas of industry practice, and a considerable number of studies have been undertaken to investigate its use in different workplaces. These studies have shown that ICT performs diverse roles in various industries and workplaces, such as small- and medium-sized rural enterprises (Steinfield, LaRose, Chew, & Tong, 2012), the construction industry (Alkalbani, Rezgui, Vorakulpipat, & Wilson, 2013; Ruddock, 2006), the automotive industry (Cherubini, Iasevoli, & Michelini, 2015), lifelong guidance service (Kettunen, Vuorinen, & Ruusuvirta, 2016), and many other industries (Poulis, Poulis, & Dooley, 2013). These studies have also indicated that the workforce needs a level of different ICT skills.

Vocational institutions, in many cases, incorporate different ICT-related teaching and learning experiences into their programs to meet industrial requirements and to prepare their graduates to use ICT in their future professions. TAFE in Australia is one of the main skill-oriented educational providers, and apprentices (in this article, terms such as “apprentice,” “trainee,” and “student” are used interchangeably) who take TAFE courses are also expected to develop the required ICT skills (Bliuc et al., 2012). Therefore, TAFE teachers play a significant role by incorporating ICT into their teaching.

Within this background, two specific aspects of ICT in vocational education need to be considered: (a) TAFE teachers' perceived experiences of ICT in vocational teaching; and (b) TAFE teachers' perceived experiences of ICT in the workplace. Both of these areas are closely linked due to the nature of instructional approaches used in vocational education, which are tightly connected to workplace practice. That is, vocational teaching is directed toward job-oriented, transferable workplace skills (Carter & Ellis-Gulli, 2014). Teachers' perceived experiences of ICT in vocational teaching have been investigated in several studies (Bliuc et al., 2012; Khan, 2015; Khan & Markauskaite, 2017). In contrast (in our knowledge), there has been no research reported that has looked at vocational teachers' perceived experiences of ICT in the workplace. This study, therefore, expands the previous research by investigating TAFE teachers' different ways of experiencing ICT use in the workplace. The underlying aim of this investigation is to provide insight on teachers' conceptions about different roles and ways of using ICT in the workplace and to base this insight on phenomenographic evidence. The current study investigates the following research question: What are the qualitatively different ways in which TAFE teachers' conceive ICT in the workplace?

The rest of the article is organized into six sections. “Conceptions of ICT in the workplace” provides a review of phenomenographic literature related to the use of ICT in the workplace. The aim is to explore how ICT is conceived in different professional fields and provide the backdrop for interpreting TAFE teachers' conceptions about ICT. “Methodology” explains phenomenographic approach and details the procedure of the study, including sampling, data collection, and analysis techniques. “Findings” presents the results, including categories of description and relationships among the categories. It also explores relationships between the teachers' dominant conceptions, their working experience, and experience of ICT use in teaching. “Discussion” synthesizes the results and elaborates on the findings. “Conclusions and implications” summarizes contributions and discusses implications, and the final section “Limitations and further research” acknowledges the limitations of this study and proposes future research directions.

Conceptions of ICT in the Workplace

How people conceive the role of ICT in the workplace has not been extensively explored from a phenomenographic perspective. Only a small number of relevant studies were found from a search of educational databases. Barnard and Gerber (1999) conducted one of the first studies in this particular context whose main purpose was to investigate surgical nurses' understanding of technology in their profession. Technology in this study was defined as the use of modern machinery and equipment in the nursing profession. They identified eight categories where technology was viewed as follows: (a) machinery and equipment, (b) changes in skills,(c) a way to increase knowledge, (d) a means to achieve respect from society and to increase autonomy, (e) a means to control their clinical practice, (f) a way to build a relationship with the overall environment of the clinic, (g) a way to focus more on technology than the health of their patients, and (h) as an alteration to the free will of nurse. The study of Munck, Fridlund, and Mårtensson (2011) focused on district nurses' conceptions of medical technology in pallative healthcare, which was defined as a device that is “used to diagnose, prevent, monitor, treat or alleviate diseases, or compensate for an injury or disability” (p. 846). This study identified five categories of description in which medical technology was considered, as it (a) leads to vulnerability, (b) demands collaboration, (c) demands self-reliance, (d) requires awareness, and (e) provides freedom for patients. The authors concluded that medical technology is seen as beneficial to the patients, but this study did not explain how the nurses saw the role of this technology in their work. The two studies described earlier are from the nursing profession where technology is operationally defined as medical equipment and machinery.

Rather differently, Bruce (1999) conducted a phenomenographic investigation into the experience of information literacy among professionals who were working in Australian universities. She identified seven different experiences of information literacy in the workplace: (a) information awareness and communication, (b) finding information from appropriate sources, (c) executing a process, (d) controlling information, (e) building up a personal knowledge based on a new area of interest, (f) working with knowledge but with a personal perspective adopted so that novel insights are gained, and (g) using information wisely for the benefit of others. Similar focus is found in the study by Forster (2013) that investigated academics' experience with information literacy in the nursing profession. This study also displayed seven preliminary categories that were mostly consistent with the study of Bruce (1999), particularly in the area of accessing information, building professional knowledge and competency, contributing and interacting with other professionals, and providing support to the professionals.

While these two studies (Bruce, 1999; Forster, 2013) focused on professionals' experience of information literacy, they did not investigate the role of ICT in it. In the literature, there is a clear distinction between the information literacy and ICT use. The former refers to the ability to recognize the information needed, to identify the possible sources of information, and to use, as well as to evaluate, information effectively (Bruce, 1999; Forster, 2013), whereas ICT refers a combination of various digital technologies, including hardware and software. Specifically, this study puts ICT in the context of professional practice and focuses on digital tools and electronic devices that are used in the workplace, such as phone, fax, printer, email, networks for internal and external collaboration and communication, Internet access, teleconferencing, use of different forms of software (generic and specialized), machineries, and equipment supported by, or derived from, digital technology. Consequently, it is important to clarify that older technology, such as machines with manual operation, is not considered to be ICT in this study.

Recently, Kettunen et al. (2016) conducted a phenomenographic study aiming to identify European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network representatives' qualitatively different conceptions of the role of ICT to national lifelong guidance policies. They discerned four categories of descriptions: (a) unexploited, (b) emerging, (c) acknowledged but fragmented, and (d) strategic. The main focus of Kettunen et al. (2016) study was the conceptions of ICT of guidance service professionals, whereas the focus of our study is vocational teachers' conceptions of ICT in the various workplaces.

This review of the literature on people's understanding of ICT and information literacy on professional work shows that although the usage of ICT is gradually increasing in professional practices, research on teachers' conceptions of ICT's role in the workplace for which they prepare their students does not exist. How teachers conceive ICT in the workplace is worth investigating, as a range of phenomenographic studies shows that teachers' conceptions often relate to their teaching practices (González, 2009; Lameras, Levy, Paraskakis, & Webber, 2012). This study, by using the phenomenographic approach, aims to provide new knowledge about TAFE teachers' conceptions of ICT in the workplace. This knowledge could inform vocational pedagogy and help bridge the gap between ICT use in teaching in vocational institutions and ICT use professional practices in future workplaces.

Methodology

Phenomenographic Approach

Phenomenography, a qualitative research approach, was selected as a methodology for this study. This approach deals with people's perceived experience of a given phenomenon (Marton, 1981). The aim of phenomenographic research is to identify a set of categories that are logically interconnected, and in most cases, hierarchically organized (Marton, 1994). They are referred to as “categories of description.” Each category includes some distinct features that distinguish it from other categories. Additionally, these categories are interrelated and together form an “outcome space” (Marton, 1994). The outcome space constitutes all the possible range of understanding that the participants have experienced and is the main result of the phenomenographic research (Åkerlind, 2012). In this study, the purpose for selecting phenomenography was to develop a set of categories of description that give insight into TAFE teachers' experiences of ICT in the workplace.

Phenomenography or Phenomenology

Research approaches, such as phenomenography and those based on phenomenology, are qualitative research methods that typically involve thorough investigation of subjective phenomena such as perception, understanding, thought processes, and emotions (Olaogun & Fatoki, 2009). Both research methods have the relational, experiential, and contextual characteristics (Marton, 1986). Therefore, they appear to be similar to each other. However, phenomenography has distinct features that make it different from phenomenology. First, phenomenology investigates the individual's experience of a particular phenomenon, whereas phenomenography studies experiences of the same phenomenon collectively (Marton, 1981). Second, in phenomenology, the phenomenon is investigated as such, whereas the investigation in phenomonography focuses on the different ways people can understand the same phenomenon (Larsson & Holmström, 2007). Third, the aim of phenomenology is to reveal the essence of the phenomena through which the inner meaning of that phenomena is identified (Larsson & Holmström, 2007). Conversely, phenomenography represents the phenomena as a set of categories, and focuses on the variety of experiences among the participants (Larsson & Holmström, 2007). Finally, phenomenography focuses on how people make sense of phenomena by consciously reflecting on their experiences, whereas phenomenology tries to describe phenomena based on prereflective people's experiences (Larsson & Holmström, 2007). Thus, the overall aim of the earlier two approaches differs from each other. Considering all the above distinctions, phenomenography was seen as a better match with the purpose of this study than phenomenology.

Participants

The selection of participants in phenomenography is guided by certain considerations. The sample size, in phenomenographic approach, should neither be too big as to lead to a problem of managing a large volume of data, nor should it be too small as to restrict the variations of experiences. Trigwell (2000) recommended 15 to 20 interviewees for this research approach and stated that possible variation could be ensured by a minimum of 10 to 15 participants. In addition, understanding a particular phenomenon is discerned from participants who are aware of the distinct features related to the problem (Marton & Booth, 1997). Besides, participants need to have various levels of experience of the phenomenon and vary across a range of potentially related characteristics, such as age, gender, experience, disciplines, institutions, and so on (Åkerlind, 2004; Green, 2005). Based on these guidelines, 23 TAFE teachers were purposively chosen as participants who had various levels of experience working in the professional fields as a practitioner (excluding experience working at TAFE as a teacher) and experience of using ICT in their teaching at TAFE (Table 1). It is important to note that we did not recruit any participant who did not have any experience in the professional field. The main characteristics of the sample were as follows:

Sixteen teachers were males, and seven females;

Teachers came from 12 professions: 6 from ICT, 3 from Accounting, 2 from Business Studies, 2 from Finance, 2 from Mechanical Engineering, 2 from Electrical Engineering, 1 from Civil Engineering, 1 from AutoCAD, 1 from Manufacturing, 1 from Refrigeration, 1 from Community Services, and 1 from Event Management and Tourism;

Nineteen teachers worked full-time and four part-time;

Teachers' experience of teaching with ICT varied from few months to more than 20 years: 6 teachers taught with ICT for 5 years or less, 6 for 6 to 10 years, 4 for 11 to 15 years, 4 for 16 to 20 years, and 3 for 21 or more years;

Teachers' work experience—in the professional field without considering teaching experience—also ranged from few months to more than 11 years: 7 teachers had less than 5 years' work experience, 8 teachers 6 to 10 years, and 8 teachers with more than 11 years;

All participants were fluent in English.

Table 1.

The Main Characteristics of the Participants.

Teacher ID	Gender	Profession	Employment level	Experience of teaching with ICT	Experience in the workplace
T01	Male	ICT	Full-time	16–20 years	11 + years
T02	Male	Electrical	Full-time	21 + years	11 + years
T03	Male	Electrical	Full-time	16–20 years	11 + years
T04	Male	Mechanical engineering	Part-time	11–15 years	11 + years
T05	Female	ICT	Full-time	16–20 years	11 + years
T06	Female	Community service	Full-time	6–10 years	6–10 years
T07	Male	Mechanical	Full-time	6–10 years	6–10 years
T08	Male	Manufacturing and engineering	Full-time	16–20 years	0–5 years
T09	Male	ICT	Full-time	21 + years	11 + years
T10	Female	Accounting	Full-time	11–15 years	6–10 years
T11	Male	Event management and tourism	Part-time	0–5 years	6–10 years
T12	Female	Accounting	Full-time	0–5 years	0–5 years
T13	Male	Information Technology	Full-time	11–15 years	11 + years
T14	Male	Finance	Full-time	11–15 years	11 + years
T15	Male	Business studies	Full-time	0–5 years	0–5 years
T16	Female	Civil Engineering	Part-time	0–5 years	0–5 years
T17	Male	AutoCAD	Full-time	6–10 years	6–10 years
T18	Male	Business and Finance	Full-time	6–10 years	6–10 years
T19	Female	ICT	Full-time	6–10 years	0–5 years
T20	Male	Accounting	Full-time	21 + years	6–10 years
T21	Male	Business services	Part-time	6–10 years	6–10 years
T22	Male	Refrigeration	Full-time	0–5 years	0–5 years
T23	Female	Information Technology	Full-time	0–5 years	0–5 years

Note. ICT = Information and Communication Technology. Before inviting participants, this study attained approvals from the Human Ethics Research Committees of the University of Sydney and the participating TAFE institutions.

Data Collection

Interviewing, in phenomenographic approach, is the preferred data gathering technique (Åkerlind, 2005, 2012; Marton & Booth, 1997, Khan, 2014). Therefore, this study was based on individual teacher interviews. The interviews provided opportunities to focus on the participants' in-depth awareness of the phenomenon. A semistructured interview protocol was adopted (Appendix A). It included a set of questions that invited participants to provide rich accounts of their experience of ICT in the workplace. The interviews started with broad “What” type of questions, such as “What does ICT mean to you when it is used in the workplace?”; “Can you describe your experience of using ICT in the workplace?” Unstructured follow-up questions were also used to encourage participants to elaborate on the topic further and clarify what they mean, such as: “Could you explain that further?”; “Why is it important?”; “Could you provide more examples?” The ultimate aim of the interview was to encourage TAFE teachers to describe their experience and their views about ICT in the workplace as completely as possible. The interviews took 40 to 60 minutes and were audio recorded.

Analysis

Data analysis started after finishing data collection. This decision followed Bowden's (2005) recommendation that the phenomenographic data analysis should not start until all the interviews had been completed. Each interview was transcribed verbatim by the first author to get a deep understanding of the data. The analysis was done with NVivo software and followed seven main steps:

The first author read all the transcripts several times in order to become familiar with their content.

All transcripts were then carefully checked against their audio files for accuracy.

The researchers explored similarities and differences in teachers' answers to each interview question. In this step, the researchers identified the collective understanding and important elements with regard to each interview question.

The researchers then reread the entire transcripts (considering all questions) again. In this step, they checked how the similarities and differences identified before match and their understanding of what the participants are saying in relation to the entire transcripts.

The researchers then identified the significant aspects and, based on the central meaning, discerned preliminary categories.

Each category was checked several times against the transcripts in order to make sure that the description of each category was accurate. Quotations from the transcripts were selected to justify the description of each category and illustrate its meaning.

The dimensions of variation—the central distinguishing features of each category—were identified. After establishing relationships between the categories of description, the final outcome space was constructed (Marton & Booth, 1997).

This analysis went through several iterations of review and refinement. The authors met frequently to discuss and refine outcomes. After preliminary categories were decided on, these were discussed with colleagues. During the final stage of confirming the outcome space, the second author went through all the categories and dimensions of variation and checked if they could be easily identified within data. All interpretive steps were also discussed with, and examples were given to, the two phenomenographers.

Validity in phenomenographic research is regarded as the degree to which the research findings are justifiable and capable of replication (Åkerlind, 2012). First, the validity of the outcome space was established by explicating the internal logic of how the categories were linked with each other (Marton, 1986). Second, the validity was crosschecked by examining how the findings are related to the findings of previous phenomenographic studies. Reliability was mainly assured through the use of appropriate methodological procedures described earlier to attain quality and consistency in data collection and analysis (Åkerlind, 2012).

Findings

Three categories of description indicating qualitatively different ways of experiencing ICT in professional workplace practices were discerned. ICT in the workplace was conceived as follows:

Category A: using ICT for various regular work-related tasks;

Category B: helping accomplish a job more effectively; and

Category C: considering ICT as an essential tool in professional activities.

Each category is described and illustrated with quotations taken from the interview transcripts. At the end of each quotation, a participant identification number is used to keep interviewees anonymous, but allow record tracing.

Categories of Description

Category A: ICT could be used for various regular work-related tasks

In Category A, ICT is viewed as a complementary tool or medium in professional work. The aim of using ICT is to support professionals in performance of various regular workplace tasks. For instance, ICT tools, both software and hardware, are used to store records in small and large businesses, to check details of patients in hospitals, to accomplish a range of tasks in banks, or to keep records in the engineering and other professions.

ICT just provides a service to other industries, like my friend, she is working in [a] hospital. There they have records for all the patients. Not only that, I have got a student who set up the radio for a hospital, but still [the] radio is a network as well. There are a lot of things [going on through ICT]. It is not just people working [in] IT. IT provides a service to other industries, like the bank–online banking. They use the service from IT. (T23)

According to this view, professionals use in their work different types of software and hardware, such as computers, faxes, and printers, in order to support their regular tasks.

I use it sometimes for investigating financial decisions, so I use two computer software packages from my investments. One is called Scaffold, the other one is called John Price. And, I spend, I don't know, fifteen minutes every day looking and assessing different shares and analyzing them using these program packages. (T15)

Category A also involves the use of ICT for communication. The teachers perceived that professionals used different tools, such as email, social media, and industry-related software to communicate within and outside the profession and workplace.

When I was back at working industry, there were only two things, if you ask what I was using for communication: [one is] emailing and [another is] using industry software. They are the only two things I can think of from the top of my head. (T22)

ICT, in this category, is not seen as a critical professional tool; rather, it is used because it is available and generally is handy. However, some teachers saw ICT use as a challenge and these tools are still not integrated in workplace practices. For example, the participant from the community service department described,

To see the use of it [use of computers for community work], and [to] keep even basic things like having case files on the Internet. They do case studies on the computer rather than writing it on paper. So I see that it's still a big challenge–the use of ICT in our profession as it is mostly face-to-face conversation with clients. (T06)

Overall, in this category, the main focus is on existing professional tasks and how ICT complements discrete professional activities performed by individuals.

Category B: ICT helps to accomplish a job more effectively

In Category B, the focus is on using ICT to accomplish professional tasks more effectively than without ICT. The effectiveness is perceived through four commonly used criteria: time, cost, degree of accuracy, and productivity.

ICT is perceived as a time saving tool. It allows for faster performance of tasks and assists industries to plan for and to complete their work on time. Work is accomplished more quickly with the use of ICT compared with the time taken with the use of other conventional methods. Participants explained that industries can make necessary decisions more quickly, and therefore, products can be delivered with greater speed. Consumers can then make purchases more rapidly:

You can change numbers on Excel spreadsheet and decide what you need to produce this week, how many people you need, what materials you need. When you run the software, you get all the information in a second. So, it's the speed of processing … So, it's speeding up. The speed, I think, is the key from a customer point of view, and also from manufacturers' point of view. (T07)

The use of ICT is also seen as a contributor to cost effective operation. Even though the initial cost to set up technology could be high, it turns into cost-effective system with faster access to needed data and low production and operation costs. For example, participants mentioned that ICT helps to reduce manpower in the industry, because technology-supported control systems require fewer personnel than do manually controlled systems, or increase production volume due to the integration of technology into process cycle, or make data-informed cost-effective decisions. Therefore, ICT can yield a reduction of overall costs in industry operation.

The company I used to work for specialized in people gathering information about the sales per supermarket outlet right across the whole country, so they know exactly who is buying what and when and could analyze that in great detail and try to figure out … to see the impact of sales and so on. [It] Cost a huge amount of money, millions of dollars to install the systems, but gave them a really [long service] great age [sic]. (T14)

ICT is also seen as a device that helps complete workplace tasks with greater accuracy and minimize the chance of human error.

I think it [ICT] is all positive. The main thing [is] it tends to save energy. That seems to be the main point, it also saves time, and it saves mistake. (T01)

Overall, the use of ICT is seen as a means of increasing productivity, either directly or indirectly because of the reduction of production time and cost and increase in accuracy (Figure 1). The primary purpose of ICT use is the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness in the workplace that leads to increased productivity and, ultimately, profit.

Well, basically, industry wants to use technologies so that they can maintain business need so they can produce profit. The bottom line is profit. So whatever industry spends on technology is always an expense. So they need to see return on investment. So if there is no return on investment, there is no place for the technology. That's the basic formula. (T05)

Figure 1.

Elements that influence productivity in industry.

This category shifts the attention from the general use of ICT in various regular tasks, in Category A, to the ICT's technological features for fostering effectiveness in order to maximize overall organizational profit. Thus, the main focus of attention is the relationship between the task, tool and organizational outcome.

Category C: ICT is an essential tool in professional activities

In Category C, ICT is viewed as an inevitable condition for the continuity of professional activities. This is based on the reality that some technology-driven industries are dependent on ICT and some professions would not exist without it. Some participants perceived that a wide range of activities in their professional field relies on technology. For instance, drawing industries, electronic industries, production industries, and ICT industries considered technology as a vital part of everyday business.

My whole industry is ICT, so anything that goes, anything electronic, and anything that buzzes, anything that has a PowerPoint attached to it is my industry. People might say that TVs might belong to the AV experts. But TVs nowadays are computers as well, you know, video recorders are all digital, all electronics, all computerized, and a lot of what we do, as we move forward in society, is more about technology talking to technology. Around the house you can have network cables; all wired up to different parts of the room, you can pump content from one room to another room in your house. It's all about ICT technology, for me it is possesses [sic] every boundary of our everyday life. (T13)

This significant impact of ICT is not limited to ICT's central role in hi-tech and production industries but relates to ICT's integration into many services that are used daily by individuals and society. This is evidenced in the dependence on ICT infrastructures of many professional tasks in a range of sectors, particularly in service industries and public services, such as communication, transportation, health, education, and entertainment. Therefore, Category C presents technology as an “essential condition” to the continued existence of professions.

My profession is marketing and computers are an enormous part of that. For starters, there is a huge amount of data. You are communicating with people, and you are doing that electronically. Without computers, and you could not manage the profession. (T14)

When compared with Categories A and B, Category C is qualitatively different. Specifically, Category A focuses on the general use of ICT to accomplish individual professional tasks and Category B emphasizes ICT's role in enhancing the overall effectiveness of the workplace performance. In contrast, Category C emphasizes the critical dependence of professional activities on technology and views ICT as an inseparable part of industry.

Relationships Between the Categories of Description

The three qualitatively different ways of experiencing the use of ICT in the workplace are explained by variations along these three interrelated dimensions: (a) accessing and receiving information, (b) communication, and (c) professional development.

Dimension 1: Accessing and receiving information

This dimension represents the theme depicting the expanding focus on the use of ICT in professional activities from accessing information for complementary use to considering access to information as an essential part of profession. To elaborate, in Category A, ICT is seen as a supportive tool for accessing information in professional activities. ICT provides a wide range of digital tools that could be used to locate information individually and collectively.

From my perspective, because we work within the wedding industry, a lot of the brides are quite Internet savvy, so they are avoiding picking up a magazine or a book. They jump straight online, using social media, going onto portal websites and finding out the information themselves. (T12)

In Category B, the emphasis is expanded to the distinctive features of ICT that allows accessing information with greater speed. In this context, technology is not only used as a basic tool for information access and retrieval but also for enhancing efficiency of information delivery and retrieval, and its accuracy in order to meet professional needs.

We can go online to another company and get information and those are the major things I can get from technology. It makes your life easier and quicker … if you could be online, you type it in, it will come straight [up]. (T17)

Within Category C, ICT is not only viewed as an effective tool to access information but also as a vital infrastructure of industry. ICT enables professionals to collect vast amounts of information, access to large integrated databases, as well as to send large volumes of data, files, and other information.

I think it is getting very vital [sic] with this industry. Even just keeping in touch with things, there is more on the computer at the moment called Voltimum [online portal for the electrical industry], which has a lot of suppliers that send information on the website, and they might be talking about a particular new light fitting that they have and they are allowing a whole lot of people to access the information about that. (T01)

In this category, ICT-enhanced access to information plays a vital role.

Dimension 2: Communication

Dimension 2 represents an expanding focus from perceiving ICT as a supportive means for communication to considering ICT as a core component of communication tasks within professional work. In Category A, ICT is viewed as a general communication tool. The main reasons for using ICT in this category are various administrative and organizational tasks, such as to reach out to coworkers for personal or professional reasons, to continue discussions with people who are not available in the office, to send messages to specific staff, and to circulate notes and agendas of meetings to concerned individuals or groups. In this context, e-mail, text messages, Skype, tele- and videoconferencing, and in some cases, audio chat are the means of communication:

If I want to have a discussion with my boss or another person, with different companies, we can have a teleconference. We used telepresence from Cisco to assist us in communication with different companies and so on. (T10)

In Category B, the nature of communication using ICT is the same as it is for Category A, but there is an additional focus on effectiveness of ICT-mediated communication in professional practices as well as in personal lives:

ICT is a tool, not a target. We use it to facilitate life for you. For example, communication, using email—it's far better than using a phone or even walking to the other building [for such communication]. (T10)

In Category C, ICT is viewed as a vital medium for communication. For instance, communication media such as e-mail, text, audio- and videoconferencing, software used for networking, and Internet are used extensively for continual back-and-forth communication.

All the work, all the communications, all the documentation, everything is done on the computer. (T03)

Social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn are seen as having “an extremely important role” in networking. Therefore, vocational teachers perceive that without technology in the professional field, it would be impossible to maintain communication between and among colleagues:

One of the biggest things that our industry is seeing is that the word of mouth is the biggest jump, so they're jumping on Facebook, posing them questions, and getting responses from their friends who they trust more than what advertising is telling them. So it's time to recognize that social media is playing an extremely important role in our field. (T12)

Dimension 3: Professional development

This dimension is represented by an expanding focus from considering ICT as a medium for enhancing individual professional learning and development to seeing ICT as a key means to facilitate new forms of engagement in professional development. In Category A, ICT is viewed as a medium through which personnel can update or upgrade their professional knowledge and skills. This category places emphasis on individual use of ICT for professional learning and development. For example, individual staff members use smartphones, tablets, or desktop computers to take part in short courses or to access information for professional improvement. Individual professional development via ICT and various forms of individual online learning are seen as alternative modes for attending face-to-face professional development and vocational courses:

I can jump onto my iPhone now and do a short course or read a blog, or do some sorts of certain skills we [personnel] need to refresh our knowledge and skills that is in an app. So, do I need to come to TAFE anymore? I can read through the course, answer question, and have a certificate emailed to me. (T12)

These alternative modes are not challenging the need for TAFE courses and conventional forms of professional development; rather, they are seen as alternative ways for accessing these opportunities for professional development.

The abovementioned roles of ICT in professional development are also found in Category B, but this category sees ICT as providing a wider range of options to update professional knowledge and develop professional competencies. Category B particularly focuses on new possibilities for professional development and learning, such as workshops, short courses, and seminars organized by different professional bodies, foreign institutions, and other organizations that can be accessed only via ICT.

I think for our own professional development there are lots and lots of options by using technology because you can access seminars from overseas and learn more about particular topics that you are interested in. So that is great as a professional development tool. (T06)

In Category C, the focus extends to engagement and collaboration. The personnel rely on ICT they learn by collaborating with clients and team members:

I rely on communicator as a tool to engage with my internal team. (T05)

ICT tools, such as WebEx, and teleconferences, are widely used for engaging, meeting, and giving feedback:

So we use WebEx as well as teleconferences in order to meet with them [participants from different projects], in order to answer their questions and engage with them. I rely on the assessors, getting continual feedback from the assessors, on their engagement strategies with the participants. (T05)

The main features of the above relationships are summarized in Table 2. It represents the expansion of the participants' awareness in all three dimensions of variation across the three main categories.

Table 2.

Relationships Between Categories of Description (ICT in the Workplace).

	Categories
	A. Supporting various regular work-related tasks	B. Accomplishing a job more effectively	C. Being an essential tool in professional activities
Dimensions of variation		Expansion
Dimensions of variation
Access and receive information	A complementary use for accessing information	An effective use in accessing and receiving information (increased speed, efficiency, and accuracy)	An essential tool for accessing and receiving information (large volumes, integrated information)
Communication	A general tool for communication	A simple and effective tool for communication	An essential media for communication
Professional development	Individual development or update of individual knowledge and skills	A wider range of options for professional development and learning	Continual engagement in new collective forms of professional development

Outcome Space

In the last step, we established the relationships between the categories and identified dominant conceptions of individual teachers. Table 3 shows the outcome space of this phenomenographic study. It summarizes the referential and structural components and their relationships. The referential component characterizes “what” of teachers' conceptions. It corresponds to the categories of description that we discussed before. The structural component characterizes “how” of teachers' conceptions that emerged from our further analysis.

Table 3.

Outcome Space: Referential and Structural Components of Teachers' Conceptions of ICT in the Workplace.

Referential component (“what” of the conceptions)	Structural component (“how” of the conceptions)
Supporting a variety of work-related tasks	Individual focused
Accomplishing a job more effectively	Organization focused
Being an essential tool in professional activities	Community focused

Overall, the identified categories represented that the expanding focus of teachers' views form the general use of ICT in workplace (Category A), to ICT features that change effectiveness of performance (Category B), to seeing ICT as an inseparable part of professional work (Category C). Category A represented the basic view of ICT in workplace as its main emphasis was on using ICT in general for regular workplace tasks. Category B represented a more inclusive view of ICT as, in addition to seeing that ICT could be used in the workplace to accomplish or supplement regular tasks, the teachers emphasized ICT's “added value” in enhancing the effectiveness of organizational performance. Category C represented the most inclusive view as the teachers expressing this view, in addition to the effectiveness, emphasized the integral role of ICT in professional work and society. Therefore, three categories represented a hierarchy, where Category B was considered as more inclusive than Category A as it inevitably had features that characterized Category A. Similarly, Category C was considered as the more inclusive than Category B as it had inherited features that characterize Categories A and B (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Hierarchical relationship among the three categories.

This hierarchical relationship could be illustrated by the views of individual teachers. For example, one participant from an ICT department held views that included features from Category C in which ICT was seen as essential for continuous professional development and communication.

The same participant also expressed views that belonged to Category B where profit was seen as the key driver for ICT use.

Industry wants to use technologies so that they can maintain business need so they can produce profit. The bottom line is profit. (T05)

These relationships showed that the categories of description deviated from each other due to their central features. Each higher category had additional distinct qualities that were not a part of earlier categories. The distinct features of teachers' views represented by each category were most visible by examining the structural component. We identified structural aspects that characterized teachers' focus in each category: individual focused, organization focused, and community focused. Category A was related to the teachers' focus on individual performance, as teachers' primary concern was the relationship between the ICT and tasks that individuals do in the workplace. Category B was related to the teachers' focus on organizational performance, as their attention was on the relationship between ICT, changes in organizational tasks, and organizational outcomes (profit). Category C was related to the teachers' focus on the industrial community and even society, as their main focus was on the relationship between ICT and new professional ways of working within the industry and technology-driven changes within the society.

Associations Between Teachers' Conceptions of ICT in the Workplace and Their Work and Teaching With ICT Experiences

The teachers in this study had different levels of working within the industry for which they prepare students and teaching with ICT experiences (Table 1). To get an insight into a possible influence of teachers' experiences, relationships have been explored between these teachers' characteristics and their conceptions of ICT in the workplace. At the outset, it is important to note that this analysis is based only on 23 participants, and the aim of it is not to establish statistical correlations but to provide additional insights into the teachers' conceptions.

Table 4 presents teachers' work experience mapped against their dominant conception. Three groups of teachers could be clearly identified. The first group (labeled G1) comprises three teachers who had only a short (up to 5 years) professional experience in the industry and tended to express a dominant view of ICT as a supplementary tool. The second group (G2) comprises eight teachers who had a medium work experience (6–10 years) and conceived ICT as an effective tool. The third group (G3) comprises eight teachers who had a long work experience (11 years or more) and perceived the role of ICT in the workplace as an essential tool. These results suggest an association between the teachers' longer work experience and their more inclusive conceptions of ICT in the workplace. However, exceptions should be noticed. For instance, two teachers who had only a short work experience saw ICT an effective (T15) and an obligatory (T12) tool. Likewise, two teachers who had a long work experience viewed ICT as a supplementary (T08) and an effective (T09) tool.

Table 4.

Relationship Between Teachers' Work Experience in the Workplace and Their Conceptions of ICT in the Workplace.

Experience in the workplace	Conceptions of ICT in the workplace
Experience in the workplace	A	B	C
Short (5 years or less)	T16, T22, T23 G1	T15	T12
Medium (6–10 years)		T06, T07, T10, T11, T17, T18, T20, T21 G2
Long (11 years or more)	T08	T09	T01, T02, T03, T04, T05, T13, T14, T19 G3

Note. Conceptions of ICT in the workplace: (A) ICT could be used for various regular work-related tasks (supplementary tool). (B) ICT helps to accomplish a job more effectively (effective tool). (C) ICT is an essential tool in professional activities (essential tool).

When the participants' teaching experiences with ICT in vocational contexts were considered, three groups of teachers emerged again (Table 5). The first group (K1) comprises three teachers who had a short (5 years or less) experience of teaching with ICT and viewed ICT in the workplace as a supplementary tool. The second group (K2) comprises six teachers who had a medium (6–10 years) experience of using ICT for teaching and perceived the role of ICT as an effective tool. The third group (K3) comprises seven teachers having a long (11 years of above) experience of teaching with ICT and viewed ICT in the workplace as an essential tool. While these results suggest a possible association between the longer experience of ICT use for teaching and more incisive view of ICT in the workplace, exceptions should be noted as eight teachers were outside these three groups.

Table 5.

Relationship Between the Teachers' Teaching Experience and Their Conceptions of ICT in the Workplace.

Experience of using ICT in teaching	Conceptions of ICT in the workplace
Experience of using ICT in teaching	A	B	C
Short (5 years or less)	T16, T22, T23 K1	T11, T15	T12
Medium (6–10 years)		T06, T07, T17, T18, T21 K2	T19
Long (11 or more years)	T08	T09, T10, T20	T01, T02, T03, T04, T05, T13, T14 K3

For example, three participants who had only a short teaching with ICT experience viewed ICT in the workplace as an effective (T11, T15) or essential (T12) tool. Likewise, five participants who had a long experience of ICT in teaching perceived ICT as a supplementary (T08) tool or an effective (T09, T10, T20) tool in the workplace.

Discussion

In summary, this study identified three qualitatively distinct categories of description of TAFE teachers' views of ICT in the workplace: (a) ICT could be used for various regular work-related tasks, (b) ICT helps to accomplish a job more effectively, and (c) ICT is an essential tool in professional activities. The study also identified and explored three dimensions of variation that characterize teachers' views: (a) accessing and receiving information, (b) communication, and (c) professional development. After further exploring specific dimensions of variation, it characterized teachers' views as being focused on (a) individual performance, (b) organizational profitability, and (c) industrial community. This analysis showed that three categories of description had a hierarchical relationship, with Category B being more inclusive than Category A, and Category C being more inclusive than Category C. Therefore, teachers' dominant conceptions were characterized by the central features if teachers' views expressed during the interviews.

Further exploration also suggested important relationships between the vocational teachers' views toward ICT in the workplace and their workplace experience as well as experience of teaching with ICT. In most cases, those teachers who had little workplace and teaching with ICT experience tended to view the role of ICT in the workplace as a supplementary tool, teachers with medium workplace and teaching with ICT experience perceived ICT in the workplace as an effective tool, and those who had long experiences in both workplace and teaching with ICT viewed ICT in the workplace as an essential tool.

Before discussing these findings, it is important to acknowledge that vocational teachers' conceptions of ICT in the workplace is a new area of investigation, and the findings of this study can be interpreted only in the wider empirical contexts, such as results from the studies of conceptions of technologies and information literacy in professional work.

The results of this study are generally in line with the findings from research in these areas but also offer new insights. In particular, Category A “ICT could be used for various regular work-related tasks” has not been identified in the earlier phenomenographic studies, but some of its features are in line with the previous findings. For example, an aspect of Category A, in which the vocational teachers' view of ICT as a supportive tool for communication and information access, is in line with the findings reported by Bruce (1999), who identified that professionals viewed information literacy as a way to improve information awareness and to help them communicate.

Category B, in which ICT is seen as a tool that allows to complete the work more effectively and accurately, is consistent with the results of Barnard and Gerber's (1999) study, where nurses perceived technology as a device that makes clinical practice simpler, easier, and in some cases more accurate. Further, in this category, ICT is viewed as a tool that enables to perform work effectively and accurately. Therefore, the overall quality of the products is increased. This view is consistent with the results from Engström, Lindqvist, Ljunggren, and Carlsson (2009) study in which ICT was seen by the staff members as a means of improving work satisfaction and quality of care in dementia care profession.

In Category C, ICT was described by teachers as an essential condition for the existence of their industry, and was viewed as the heart of the professional practices. This specific view is broadly parallel to Barnard and Gerber's (1999) findings where they found that the nurses saw themselves as relying on technology in their clinical practices, for example, when they monitor and assess patients.

A number of studies also identified negative views of technologies, such as fear of relying excessively on technology and being busy with technology rather than looking after the patients in nursing (Barnard & Gerber, 1999; Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin, & Blumenthal, 2011). In contrast, the present study did not find so clearly expressed concerns about overusing ICT in the workplace among the interviewed TAFE teachers. Only some teachers voiced that ICT is not similarly used and widespread in all areas of professional work, and in some fields, such as community work, the use of ICT in the workplace is still “a big challenge.”

The current study also revealed some new insights into people's conceptions about ICT in the workplace. Teachers' perceptions of the main drivers for using ICT in the workplace were one of the most important new findings: In Category A, the main perceived by the teachers reason for using ICT in the workplace was that technology is already out there; in Category B, the main perceived driver was a possibility to increase the overall organizational profit; and in Category C, the conceptions about ICT in the workplace were mainly informed by the view that both the industry and the society depends largely on technology. None of these three aspects was identified in other similar studies.

The teachers who had longer work experience and ICT-enhanced teaching experience had more inclusive conceptions of ICT in workplace. Many studies also reported that school teachers' experiences with ICT have impact on their pedagogical practice (Koh, Chai, & Lim, 2017; Tondeur, van Braak, Ertmer, & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2017). The findings of this study, therefore, extend the prior literature to the area of professional education and work. However, the present study does not offer supportive evidence that longer workplace experience (or age) may be a related to more conservative views toward technology adoption, which has been seen as important concern in some organizational literature (Meyer, 2011; Schubert & Andersson, 2015). In fact, the teachers who had a longer workplace experience had more inclusive conceptions of ICT than those teachers who had a shorter work experience. This finding is more supportive to the evidence that the experienced workers are open to high-level technological change (Burlon & Vilalta-Bufí, 2016). However, the length of teachers' work experience within the industry for which they prepare students should not be seen as the only explanation for teachers' more inclusive conceptions of ICT workplace; the nature of profession, specific tasks performed by professionals in different workplaces, and other features of workplace may also be related to how teachers see ICT in the workplace.

Conclusions and Implications

The findings of this study have theoretical, methodological, and practical implications. In our knowledge, this is the first study that investigates teachers' views about ICT in the workplace and uses phenomenography as its theoretical and methodological foundation. It adds value to educational research by extending the existing phenomenographical framework, which has been used extensively for investigating teachers' conceptions about teaching and investigating teachers' conceptions about the workplace. This extension establishes an important theoretical and methodological connection between the ways for investigating teachers' conceptions of teaching and their conceptions of workplace practices.

The empirical findings of this study offer practical implications for curriculum development in vocational education and vocational teachers' professional development. Specifically, this study, through exploring teachers' conceptions, provides useful insights about the different rationales and different ways of seeing ICT use in the workplace. Curriculum developers could use this knowledge for designing vocational courses and planning ICT integration into teaching. In particular, these results suggest that the integration of the full spectrum of ICT-related learning experiences across vocational education curriculum could help minimize the gap between teaching practices in vocational education and workplace practices that have been often reported in the previous literature (Allais, 2012; Boud & Brew, 2013; Eraut, 2004).

Previous research also found that teachers' conceptions are related to students' learning outcomes (Prosser & Trigwell, 1999). Thus, teachers' ways of understanding ICT in the workplace may have an impact on their teaching and consequentially on students' learning outcomes. For instance, teachers who have more inclusive conceptions of ICT in the workplace are more likely to expose their students to a broader set of workplace-related ICT tasks and help students develop a broader understanding of ICT in their future work. However, those teachers who have less inclusive conception may benefit from various professional development opportunities that expose them to a broader spectrum of ICT-related workplace practices. The findings of this study could be directly used to guide conversations with vocational teachers during professional and program development.

These results about vocational teachers' conceptions of ICT in the workplace could also assist to understand better vocational teachers' conceptions of ICT-enhanced teaching (see Khan, 2015). Professional development programs, in order to help teachers connect their use of ICT in teaching to the ways in which ICT could be used in the workplace, should consider both sets of teachers' conceptions. This is particularly important in vocational sector where ICT-enhanced teaching and preparation of students for the workplace are of primary concern.

The relationships between vocational teachers' conceptions of ICT in the workplace and teaching with ICT experiences suggest similar practical implications. Designers of professional development programs should consider teachers' work and ICT use in teaching experiences simultaneously as they may affect teachers' ways of thinking about ICT in the workplace and consequentially about how ICT should be used in teaching.

These results could also inform various policies for ICT integration in vocational education and workplace learning. More specifically, the findings of our study—particularly the views of ICT an effective tool (Category B) or essential tool (Category C)—suggest that ICT permeates vocational practices and teaching of ICT-related knowledge and skills should be integrated across courses. It is expected that these findings may be also useful for industry partners who offer students placements, serve as workplace mentors, and in other ways collaborate with vocational training institutions. Their awareness of how vocational teachers understand ICT in the workplace might help build a better joint understanding of how ICT should be integrated in vocational teaching and learning.

Limitations and Future Research

It is important to acknowledge the limitations of this study. First, the sample included 23 teachers. This sample size could be considered as small in some methodologies, such as quantitative research; however, it is adequate for a qualitative phenomenographic study. Other similar phenomenographic studies that have investigated new phenomena were based even on smaller samples than the present study (e.g., Barnard & Gerber, 1999; Forster, 2013; Limbu & Markauskaite, 2015; Markauskaite & Wardak, 2015). Second, the participants came from three TAFE institutions only. However, they had diverse backgrounds and professional experiences, and their expressed views reflected a broad range of ways of experiencing ICT in the workplace. Nevertheless, the outcome space may not capture some ways of experiencing the phenomenon that might emerge from a larger and broader sample of participants. Therefore, these findings should not be generalized to the use of ICT in the workplace nationwide or worldwide. Further research may consider recruiting teachers from TAFE institutions and other similar vocational education providers on a broader scale. Third, this article did not investigate relationships between the teachers' conceptions of ICT in their teaching and their conceptions of ICT in the workplace. A future study that explores relationships between how vocational teachers understand ICT-enhanced teaching and how the same teachers view ICT in the workplace for which they prepare students would be particularly useful.

Appendix A

The Interview Schedule

This interview schedule is semistructured and designed to be used flexibly during interviewing teaching staff. The interviewer will concentrate on the enlisted questions.

Commencing with the purpose of the project

I would like to introduce the project briefly: The project focuses on TAFE teachers' perceived understanding about ICT when it is used in profession.

ICT is the acronym for Information and Communication Technology.

Profession refers to any occupation that requires knowledge and skill from any recognized technical and vocational institution, for example, TAFE institutions, such as: [Anonymized].

As aforementioned, I would like to request for your permission to record the interview because it will be transcribed along with others and the collected data from this study will use pseudonyms and your identity will be kept confidential. Is it ok if the interview is recorded?

Conceptions of ICT in Profession

Based on your experiences, what does ICT mean to you when ICT is used in profession? (If they ask for further explanation or are unsure: I will ask it another way: What do you understand about using ICT in workplaces) Probes:

i. Why do you think this way?

ii. Could you explain it further?

How could ICT be used in professions? Probes:

i. What are the purposes of using ICT in profession?

ii. What kinds of jobs are performed using ICT? Can you give some examples?

iii. What are the possible benefits and limitations of using ICT in professions?

Closing of the Interview

Before we finish, is there anything else you would like to include or explain that you have not already mentioned?

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Peter Goodyear, Vivien Hodgson and Pang Ming-Fai for their useful suggestions and Courtney Hilton for his editorial assistance.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research made possible through the financial support of an Australian Award (AusAid) scholarship.

Author Biographies

Md. Shahadat Hossain Khan completed his PhD at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has been working as an assistant professor of the Department of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE), at the Islamic University of Technology (IUT). Bangladesh, since 2006. He was awarded Australian Leadership Award Scholarship (Australia), Skill-Road Scholarship (Seoul University, South Korea) based on his outstanding academic results, teaching and research expertise. His research area mainly explores on ICT-enhanced teaching and learning, professional development particularly focus on scholarship in teaching (student-centered teaching, ICT-integration), Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) pedagogy, technology integration in TVET sectors, and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) in national and international contexts.

Lina Markauskaite is an associate professor and co-director of the Centre for Research on Learning and Innovation, the University of Sydney, Australia. Lina has been carrying out studies in the areas of technology-enhanced learning, professional knowledge and methodological innovation since the mid-1990s. Her recent work includes books Epistemic Fluency and Professional Education: Innovation, Knowledgeable Action, and Actionable Knowledge (2017, coauthored with Peter Goodyear) and Methodological Choice and Design: Scholarship, Policy and Practice in Social and Educational Research (2011, coedited with Peter Freebody and Jude Irwin), and a special issue e-Research for Education: Applied, Methodological and Critical Perspectives (2014, BJET, coedited with Peter Reimann).

References

Åkerlind

G. S.

(2004) A new dimension to understanding university teaching. Teaching in Higher Education 9(3): 363–375. doi:10.1080/1356251042000216679.

Åkerlind

G. S.

(2005) Phenomenographic methods: A case illustration. In: Bowden

Green

(eds) Doing developmental phenomenography, Melbourne, Australia: RMIT University Press, pp. 103–127.

Åkerlind

G. S.

(2012) Variation and commonality in phenomenographic research methods. Higher Education Research & Development 31(1): 115–127. doi:10.1080/07294360.2011.642845.

Alkalbani

Rezgui

Vorakulpipat

Wilson

I. E.

(2013) ICT adoption and diffusion in the construction industry of a developing economy: The case of the sultanate of Oman. Architectural Engineering and Design Management 9(1): 62–75.

Allais

(2012) Will skills save us? Rethinking the relationships between vocational education, skills development policies, and social policy in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Development 32(5): 632–642.

Armatas

Papadopoulos

(2013) Approaches to work-integrated learning and engaging industry in vocational ICT courses: Evaluation of an Australian pilot program. International Journal of Training Research 11(1): 56–68.

Barnard

Gerber

(1999) Understanding technology in contemporary surgical nursing: A phenomenographic examination. Nursing Inquiry 6(3): 157–166.

Bliuc

A.-M.

Casey

Bachfischer

Goodyear

Ellis

R. A.

(2012) Blended learning in vocational education: Teachers' conceptions of blended learning and their approaches to teaching and design. The Australian Educational Researcher 39(2): 237–257.

Boud

Brew

(2013) Reconceptualising academic work as professional practice: Implications for academic development. International Journal for Academic Development 18(3): 208–221.

10.

Bowden

(2005) Reflections on the phenomenographic team research process. In: Bowden

Green

(eds) Doing developmental phenomenography, Melbourne, Australia: RMIT University Press, pp. 11–31.

11.

Bruce

C. S.

(1999) Workplace experiences of information literacy. International Journal of Information Management 19(1): 33–47.

12.

Buntin

M. B.

Burke

M. F.

Hoaglin

M. C.

Blumenthal

(2011) The benefits of health information technology: A review of the recent literature shows predominantly positive results. Health Affairs 30(3): 464–471.

13.

Burlon

Vilalta-Bufí

(2016) A new look at technical progress and early retirement. IZA Journal of Labor Policy 5(1): 5.

14.

Carter, R., & Ellis-Gulli, C. (2014). Delivering higher education in TAFE NSW: Exploring the pedagogy of VET teachers. Paper presented at the 17th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association, Surfers Paradise, Qld, Australia.

15.

Cherubini

Iasevoli

Michelini

(2015) Product-service systems in the electric car industry: Critical success factors in marketing. Journal of Cleaner Production 97(0): 40–49.

16.

Collins

(2013) Supporting teachers to embed flexible learning technologies in their teaching practice: A case study, National Vocational Education and Training Research Program occasional paper, Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.

17.

Engström

Lindqvist

Ljunggren

Carlsson

(2009) Staff members' perceptions of a ICT support package in dementia care during the process of implementation. Journal of Nursing Management 17(7): 781–789.

18.

Eraut

(2004) Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings. In: Rainbird

Fuller

Munro

(eds) Workplace learning in context, London, England: Routledge, pp. 201–221.

19.

Forster

(2013) A phenomenographic investigation into information literacy in nursing practice—Preliminary findings and methodological issues. Nurse Education Today 33(10): 1237–1241.

20.

González

(2009) Conceptions of, and approaches to, teaching online: A study of lecturers teaching postgraduate distance courses. Higher Education 57(3): 299–314. doi:10.1007/s10734-008-9145-1.

21.

Green

(2005) A rigorous journey into phenomenography: From a naturalistic inquirer standpoint. In: Bowden

Green

(eds) Doing developmental phenomenography, Melbourne, Australia: RMIT University Press, pp. 32–46.

22.

Kettunen

Vuorinen

Ruusuvirta

(2016) European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network representatives' conceptions of the role of information and communication technologies related to national guidance policies. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance 16(3): 327–342.

23.

Khan, M. S. H. (2014). Phenomenography: a qualitative research methodology in Bangladesh. International Journal on new trends in education and their implication, 5(2), 34–43.

24.

Khan

M. S. H.

(2015) Emerging conceptions of ICT-enhanced teaching: Australian TAFE context. Instructional Science 43: 683–708. doi:10.1007/s11251-015-9356-7.

25.

Khan

M. S. H.

Markauskaite

(2017) Approaches to ICT-enhanced teaching in technical and vocational education: A phenomenographic perspective. Higher Education 73(5): 691–707. doi:10.1007/s10734-016-9990-2.

26.

Koh

J. H. L.

Chai

C. S.

Lim

W. Y.

(2017) Teacher professional development for TPACK-21CL: Effects on teacher ICT integration and student outcomes. Journal of Educational Computing Research 55(2): 172–196.

27.

Lameras

Levy

Paraskakis

Webber

(2012) Blended university teaching using virtual learning environments: Conceptions and approaches. Instructional Science 40(1): 141–157.

28.

Larsson

Holmström

(2007) Phenomenographic or phenomenological analysis: Does it matter? Examples from a study on anaesthesiologists' work. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being 2(1): 55–64.

29.

Limbu

Markauskaite

(2015) How do learners experience joint writing: University students' conceptions of online collaborative writing tasks and environments. Computers & Education 82: 393–408.

30.

Markauskaite

Wardak

(2015) Research students' conceptions of the role of information and communication technologies in educational technology research. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 31(4): 421–438.

31.

Marton

(1981) Phenomenography-describing conceptions of the world around us. Instructional Science 10(2): 177–200.

32.

Marton

(1986) Phenomenography: A research approach to investigating different understandings of reality. Journal of Thought 21(3): 28–49.

33.

Marton

(1994) Phenomenography. In: Husen

Postlethwaite

(eds) The international encyclopedia of education, Oxford, England: Pergamon, pp. 4424–4429.

34.

Marton

Booth

(1997) Learning and awareness, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

35.

Meyer

(2011) Workforce age and technology adoption in small and medium-sized service firms. Small Business Economics 37(3): 305–324.

36.

Munck

Fridlund

Mårtensson

(2011) District nurses' conceptions of medical technology in palliative homecare. Journal of Nursing Management 19(7): 845–854.

37.

Olaogun

J. A.

Fatoki

O. I.

(2009) Theory building approach using qualitative data analysis. The Social Sciences 4(1): 12–23.

38.

Poulis

Dooley

(2013) ‘Information communication technology’ innovation in a non-high technology sector: Achieving competitive advantage in the shipping industry. The Service Industries Journal 33(6): 594–608.

39.

Prosser

Trigwell

(1999) Understanding learning and teaching: The experience in higher education, Buckingham, England: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

40.

Ruddock

(2006) ICT in the construction sector: Computing the economic benefits. International Journal of Strategic Property Management 10(1): 39–50.

41.

Schubert

Andersson

(2015) Old is gold? The effects of employee age on innovation and the moderating effects of employment turnover. Economics of Innovation and New Technology 24(1–2): 95–113.

42.

Steinfield

LaRose

Chew

H. E.

Tong

S. T.

(2012) Small and medium-sized enterprises in rural business clusters: The relation between ICT adoption and benefits derived from cluster membership. The Information Society 28(2): 110–120.

43.

Tondeur

van Braak

Ertmer

P. A.

Ottenbreit-Leftwich

(2017) Understanding the relationship between teachers' pedagogical beliefs and technology use in education: A systematic review of qualitative evidence. Educational Technology Research and Development 65(3): 555–575.

44.

Trigwell, K. (2000). A phenomenographic interview on phenomenography. In J. Bowden & E. Walsh (Eds.), Phenomenography (pp. 63–82). Melbourne: RMIT University Press.