How can the technology introduction foster educational innovation in VET centers? A comparative case study

Since the mass diffusion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Italian educational institutions have been implementing several experimental projects in order to enhance students learning experience (Moricca, 2016). The initial Vocational Education and Training (VET) has been part of this innovation process with several pilot projects, such as iCnos, which aims at introducing ICTs as support to teachers’ activities and students’ learning process (Franchini, 2015). This project has been led by the central management of CNOS-FAP federation through several teacher training courses, the empowerment of internet connection infrastructure and the substitution of paper handbooks and notebooks with the iPad. Each center involved in the pilot project has managed independently the innovation process based on the guidelines issued by the central management. The main research questions of this exploratory study are as follows: Can an institutional innovation process - managed with a top-down approach - fosters pedagogical and organizational changes in VET centers? Which aspects and roles are involved in this innovation process? How do teachers and students perceive and react to this innovation process? Which are the solutions implemented by the different centers? Which are the shortcomings? Which solutions have been implemented by the centers? To answer these research questions, a comparative case study has been conducted (Yin, 1984; Campbell, 2010). Four VET centers were selected. The teachers in charge of the coordination of the project of each center were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire; also project documentation and teaching materials were gathered. The analysis has followed an iterative, grounded approach and included the use of Nvivo 11 (qualitative data analysis software) (Holton & Glaser, 2012). The comparison of interviews and the other gathered data shown that the innovation process has been taking different forms in every VET center context. The analysis also suggests that there are several core factors in the innovation process investigated. The main results could represent a set of good practices that could be taken into account by the CNOS-FAP federation when the iCnos project will be extended to all the federation centers. In this sense, these may be also useful in similar contexts.