The dilemma of teaching with digital technologies in developing countries: Experiences of art and design teacher educators in Uganda

Abstract

This case study explores how teacher educators use digital technologies in teaching Art and Design (A&D) in a developing country. It uses semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations to gather qualitative data from teacher educators at two teacher training institutions in central Uganda. To understand the actual use of technologies by teacher educators in the A&D classroom, analysis of the data employed concepts from van Dijk’s resources and appropriation theory (RAT) and Mishra and Koehler’s TPACK framework. The findings indicate that low digital competence among teacher educators and insufficient access to appropriate hardware, software and the Internet means that A&D teacher educators in Uganda only occasionally use digital technologies in the classroom. Instead, teacher educators use non-professional software such as Microsoft Office to teach Art and Design subjects. The findings further confirm teacher educators’ limited awareness of the relationship between technology, pedagogy and content knowledge in the Art and Design classroom. Insufficient access to adequate digital resources, skills and knowledge explains the low creative use of digital technologies in teaching A&D lessons.