Digital Innovation in Education: Occupational Stress and Attitude toward Change among Schoolteachers

The introduction of ICT into the school context is driving change in the education system, and teachers, whether willingly or otherwise, are among the main actors in this process. The study of organizational change and innovation suggests a number of variables whose impact must be analysed if we are to understand how the outcomes of digital innovation in schools may be optimized. In this paper, we evaluate the experience of a large sample of teachers (420 completed questionnaires) who had been involved in a digital innovation programme for schools. More specifically, we measured the impact of personal and contextual variables on the participants’ attitude to digital change, identifying a pattern of interaction. While some variables, such as age and perceived ICT expertise, influenced both positive and negative attitudes to change, others had a more specific impact: For example, commitment to the organization mainly encouraged positive attitudes towards the digital innovation project, while negative attitudes to digital change were also associated with negative self-perceived work/life balance.