Teachers' use of technology in Punjab's schools : a comparative case study of a public, a private, and a partnership school

Abstract

This research studied teachers’ use of technology in Punjab’s schools. The research questions were: (1) “How are public, private, and partnership schools using technology for teaching purposes?” (2) “What is teachers’ and school administrators’ attitude towards the use of technology for teaching and learning?” (3) “What factors influence their attitude?” (4) “How is their attitude affecting the schools’ teaching and students’ learning?” (5) “What can be done to effectively train the stakeholders in using technology meaningfully for the teaching and learning process?”This qualitative research employed comparative case-study method to study three different types of schools in Punjab province of Pakistan. A public, a private, and a public-private partnership school’s teachers and school leaders were research participants. Semi-structured interviews and relevant official documents provided the data for this study.Findings depicted major weaknesses in Punjab’s teacher training, recruitment and professional development domains. Several intrinsic and extrinsic factors were highlighted by teachers and school leaders to identify those factors’ impact on participants’ attitude and execution of learning with technology. Teacher’s willingness to learn and improve was one of the salient positive results of this study. However, there was not enough evidence of eagerness from national government, provincial government, school owners, or policy makers, to bring about major changes to incorporate a culture that is conducive to meaningful use of technology.The original contribution of this study to the body of knowledge is by depicting the struggle and occasional success of a monolingual (for example, Urdu speaking) teacher trying to make meaningful use of technology, where most of the support is being provided in a foreign language (English). This study highlighted technological, linguistic, gender, cultural, and economic barriers faced by a predominantly female teaching staff while working in the participant schools. Non-meaningful use of technology due to lack of proper training was also studied and potentially rectified using information dissemination workshops.