ZA-WWW, 2009 conference

Font Size: 
Qualitative case studies of context sensitive ICT pedagogical practices of teachers in the North-West Province
C Els, A.S. Blignaut

Last modified: 2009-08-27

Abstract


The White Paper on e-Education encourages schools and teachers to increasingly make use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) for effective teaching and learning. Although the publication of this policy on e-Education represents a major step into the new information era, it is unclear what is happening at ground level. The Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES 2006) was a large scale international survey on the ICT practices of schools in twenty two countries and education systems. This study investigated the ICT practices of Grade 8 mathematics and science teachers, principals and ICT coordinators through three questionnaires. Due to the quantitative nature of the study, SITES 2006 did not focus on the unique human experiences and practices of teachers regarding ICTs on a contextual qualitative level. Therefore, the aim of our investigation was to obtain an in-depth context sensitive understanding of ICT pedagogical practices and experiences of Grade 8 Mathematics and Science teachers at eight different types of schools in the North-West Province. We visited the schools and conducted interviews with teachers. We then used the computer assisted data analysis program Atlas.ti™ to analyse the interview data and constructed an integrated data set which identified four main categories of data related to the ICT pedagogical practices and experiences of Grade 8 Mathematics and Science teachers: (i) Context Barriers, (ii) Context Enablers, (ii) ICT Barriers, and (iv) ICT Enablers. We explore these categories through observations, photographs and quotations from the interviews.

Full Text: PDF