Viewpoints to ICT Practices and Hindrances from in Tanzanian Secondary Schools and Teacher Training Colleges: Focus on Classroom Teachers

Abstract

On the policy level, Tanzania has strongly committed to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supported education on all levels of education. National policy documents give ICT a high priority in development of the country's educational system. Curricula have been revamped to accommodate for increased role of ICT in the society and education. Also educational institutions have explicated high expectations of ICT in the process of "massification of education." Several research studies, however, have showed little change in the classrooms. Surveys and case studies have showed that on the way from policy documents to strategy level and implementation level, something gets missing. The lack of ICT in education is clear in primary and secondary school, which is unsurprising, given that majority of schools also lack electricity and basic facilities, including proper classrooms, tables, and books. This study sets out to investigate, using thematic interviews of secondary school teachers in Tanzania, what processes and support structures do teachers consider to be lacking in terms of ICT supported education. Informants from teacher training colleges were also involved in order to bring out viewpoints from teacher training. The results confirmed a large number of earlier results, divided to six categories: school policy, implementation and administration on the school level, access to ICT, leadership and management, school culture, and teacher training. A number of new factors were also pinpointed: teachers' lack of awareness of government policies and documentation on several levels, lack of pedagogical readiness for e-learning and blended learning, and cultural concerns. Concerning what should come first, there was a chicken-and-egg-problem: it makes little sense to invest in rapidly aging ICT infrastructure and facilities if there is no human capacity to make use of those investments, and it makes little sense to invest in human capacity if there is no technological infrastructure to put quickly aging technical know-how into immediate use.