Michack Mandla Masango, L. van Ryneveld, M. Graham
{"title":"Barriers to the Implementation of Electronic Textbooks in Rural and Township Schools in South Africa","authors":"Michack Mandla Masango, L. van Ryneveld, M. Graham","doi":"10.1080/18146627.2022.2064310","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The use of information and communications technology (ICT) is gradually increasing in South African schools. In the Gauteng province, the Department of Education has prioritised the provisioning of electronic textbooks (ebooks) to public schools since 2014. However, to this day, there seem to be multiple barriers that hamper the adoption and use of digital technologies, and specifically ebooks. This study was premised on the technology acceptance model, and a mixed-method approach was used with an online questionnaire and a semi-structured interview protocol as the data collection instruments. For the qualitative data, thematic analysis was used to identify themes and patterns. For the quantitative data, descriptive statistics, such as frequencies and percentages, and inferential statistics, such as the two-proportions z-test and the chi-square test of independence, were utilised. Results indicated that although portable electronic devices that facilitate the reading of ebooks are readily available at public schools in Gauteng, the availability and use of ebooks are still very limited. The results also show that the participants found digital resources easy to use and easy to navigate and indicated that teachers would like to have more training to fully develop the necessary skills required to implement the ebooks effectively. Teachers do not seem to have adequate time to prepare teaching materials and learning activities using these ebooks. In this article, the barriers to the successful implementation of ebooks are explored, and the article culminates in putting forward some guidelines to create an enabling environment to support the successful adoption of ebooks in schools.","PeriodicalId":44749,"journal":{"name":"Africa Education Review","volume":"17 1","pages":"86 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2020-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Africa Education Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2022.2064310","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Abstract The use of information and communications technology (ICT) is gradually increasing in South African schools. In the Gauteng province, the Department of Education has prioritised the provisioning of electronic textbooks (ebooks) to public schools since 2014. However, to this day, there seem to be multiple barriers that hamper the adoption and use of digital technologies, and specifically ebooks. This study was premised on the technology acceptance model, and a mixed-method approach was used with an online questionnaire and a semi-structured interview protocol as the data collection instruments. For the qualitative data, thematic analysis was used to identify themes and patterns. For the quantitative data, descriptive statistics, such as frequencies and percentages, and inferential statistics, such as the two-proportions z-test and the chi-square test of independence, were utilised. Results indicated that although portable electronic devices that facilitate the reading of ebooks are readily available at public schools in Gauteng, the availability and use of ebooks are still very limited. The results also show that the participants found digital resources easy to use and easy to navigate and indicated that teachers would like to have more training to fully develop the necessary skills required to implement the ebooks effectively. Teachers do not seem to have adequate time to prepare teaching materials and learning activities using these ebooks. In this article, the barriers to the successful implementation of ebooks are explored, and the article culminates in putting forward some guidelines to create an enabling environment to support the successful adoption of ebooks in schools.
期刊介绍:
Africa Education Review is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal that seeks the submission of unpublished articles on current educational issues. It encourages debate on theory, policy and practice on a wide range of topics that represent a variety of disciplines, interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary interests on international and global scale. The journal therefore welcomes contributions from associated disciplines including sociology, psychology and economics. Africa Education Review is interested in stimulating scholarly and intellectual debate on education in general, and higher education in particular on a global arena. What is of particular interest to the journal are manuscripts that seek to contribute to the challenges and issues facing primary and secondary in general, and higher education on the African continent and in the global contexts in particular. The journal welcomes contributions based on sound theoretical framework relating to policy issues and practice on the various aspects of higher education.