When does the educational use of ICT become a source of technostress for Finnish teachers?

Abstract

The accelerating digitalization of society has resulted in a demand to speed-up the implementation of ICT in teaching, and changes in curriculum policies reflect this development. However, the demand to increase the educational use of ICT may also cause stress. The aim of the current study was to explore how demographics are associated with technostress and which factors predict it in Finnish school teachers. The data was collected with the OPEKA online self‑evaluation questionnaire tool. The sample consisted of 2,741 teachers. The results indicated that subject teachers were more “technostressed” than class teachers, female teachers were more stressed than males, and teachers with 16–30 years of working experience were more stressed than teachers with 0–15 years of experience. The key predictors of the technostress were ICT competence, the concordance of the educational use of ICT with the teaching style, school support, and attitudes to the educational use of ICT. High ICT competence, high concordance of ICT with the teaching style, high levels of school support, and positive attitudes to ICT were associated with low levels of technostress. The results are discussed in the light of previous findings, and the practical implications and the need for future studies are explored.