Regardless of what is intended by government curriculum specifications and advised by educational experts, the competencies taught and learned in and out of classrooms can vary considerably. In this paper, we discuss in particular how we can investigate the perceptions that individual teachers have of competencies in ICT, and how these and other factors may influence students’ learning. We report case study research which identifies contradictions within the teaching of ICT competencies as an activity system, highlighting issues concerning the object of the curriculum, the roles of the participants and the school cultures. In a particular case, contradictions in the learning objectives between higher order skills and the use of application tools have been resolved by a change in the teacher’s perceptions which have not led to changes in other aspects of the activity system. We look forward to further investigation of the effects of these contradictions in other case studies and on forthcoming curriculum change.