The use of new technologies in teachers’ professional development: new ways to enhance personal capabilities?

This article aims at contributing to the debate on teachers’ professional updating, focusing on the theme of teachers’ training in the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), intended both as a classroom teaching instrument, and a form of mediation in teachers’ training process, in order to determine how education, continuous training and Welfare State are actually and effectively macro-resources or positive transition factors at an individual level, and whether available resources allow developing personal capabilities, or become risk factors restraining professional growth. These aspects allow considering teachers’ training in new technologies a driving element for developing their professional capabilities according to the theoretical model proposed by Amartya Sen (1984), introducing concepts like functioning, capability, resource and freedom of choice, and referring them to an empirical level through an analysis of a lifelong learning experience the Italian Ministry of Education (MIUR) proposed to the Italian teachers.