How Can I Encourage Multi-Stakeholder Narrative and Reflection on the Use of ICT in Teacher

How can I encourage multi-stakeholder narrative and reflection on the use of ICT in Teacher Professional Development programmes in Rwanda?

Mary Hooker

Abstract

In this article I will show how I engaged in an action research living theory study of my practice as I addressed myresearch question“How am I improving my practice and contributing to knowledge as I encourage multi-stakeholder narrative and reflection on the use of ICT in Teacher Professional Development programmes in Rwanda?”

I set out my own context working within the mission of my organization,the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), in assisting developing country partners to strengthen their knowledge systems and to develop their own visionary thinking, strategic capacity and sustainable solutions to manage, deploy and integrate ICT in Education.

The literature I engage with examined global agendas for ICT integration in Teacher Professional Development (TPD), the complexity of the ICT-TPD landscape in the Africa region and the emerging trends for benchmarking ICT integration in TPD. I explore the potential of an Activity Theory reference?lens to assist institutional benchmarking on conceptual models, barriers and strategies for ICT integration in TPD systems of provision. Thus I describe the adaption of a hybrid approach combining a toolbox of a ‘Most Significant Change’ narrative technique and an ‘Activity Systems’ model to encourage critical reflective discourse among the stakeholder community of teacher educators, curriculum developers and researchers in Rwanda.

My study was validated and critiqued during different stages of the research process. Through the rigour of the action research living theory approach I came to a number of conclusions about partnership collaboration and my own ontological and epistemological values. I believe that I created a communication space to engage partners in an equitable relationship for debating the issues of ICT integration in TPD. I have shown that success is possible through careful mediation which develops capability for knowledge building and sharing with and through the use of solid tools and sound methods which are underpinned by deep theory.

Keywords: Teacher Professional Development; Action Research; Living Theory; Activity Theory; Activity Systems; Most Significant Change.

1.0The context of my study

1.1My context

I am an Education Specialist working for the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), an International Non-Government Organization (INGO). GeSCI was set up under the auspices of a United Nations (UN) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Task Force in 2004 as a designated body to provide demand-driven assistance to developing countries seeking to harness the potential of ICT to improve access to, and the quality and effectiveness of their education systems.

I am also affiliated to the creative space of the Action Research Living Theory Collaboratory set up by Dr. Margaret Farren in Dublin City University ‘to enable practitioner-researchers to provide evidence-based accounts of how they are improving work practices within their organisations and generatingnew knowledge through the use of ICT’ (Farren, 2007).

1.2ICT and Teacher Professional Development in Rwanda

The context of my study is Rwanda and specifically the ICT for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) landscape in Rwanda. Rwanda’sVision 2020 identifies the strengthening of teacher development in an ICT-rich environment as one of the top government priorities for the achievement of its national socio-economic development goals (MINECOFIN ????, 2001, citedIin Mukama and Andersson, 2008). The government plan is to computerize all schools and connect them to the Internet in the immediate future (Davis and Keino, 2006). With respect to training structures to support the development of ICT in the Rwanda educational system, higher educational institutions are required to make computer studies and basic computing an integral and a compulsory subject within their teacher education programmes (Mukama and Andersson,op.cit.).2008).

The drive to utilize ICT as an integral feature in all professional learning programmes has led to the emergence of a myriad of national and international initiatives and schemes for new technology integration over the last decade (Farrell and Isaacs 2007). The current development of a Rwanda National ICT in Education policy represents a timely process to create a regulatory and governance framework to shape ‘the interventions and initiatives that are taking place and for those needed in this sector’ (MinEduc???., 2008, p. 12).

At a meeting date?between GeSCI and members of the Teacher Education Services (TES) of the Ministry of Education (MinEduc) of Rwanda in October 2008, discussion focused on a need for development of a framework for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) using ICT in an effort to coordinate programmes and improve school support towards a more productive integration of new technology. A prelude to developing a TPD for ICT framework would be an analysis of current programmes and initiatives in order to understand the challenges, opportunities and lessons that are being learned from the different levels, perspectives and contexts of programme implementation.

The process of enabling discourse among teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers and policy makers to trigger deep reflection on the various possibilities for ICT integration in professional learning in Rwanda constitutes the focus of my research.

1.3Knowledge, Technology and Development in a Knowledge Society

GeSCI write in full believes that ICT can be a powerful enabler of development goals and that the proper and effective use of ICT can improve the quality of teaching and learning at all levels of the education system. As an organization, we are committed to a vision of a Knowledge Society for All:

…where every person has equitable access to knowledge, and the ability and capacity to create and share knowledge for society’s overall development (GeSCI 2008, p. 22).

GeSCI seeks to work with Ministries of Education in developing countries to address fundamental causes of poor quality and access to Education provision wording? and to assess how ICT can be used to address these problems at different system levels. At the heart of GeSCI’s mission is the concept of Knowledge Building and Sharing: working together with our developing country partners to strengthen their knowledge systems and to develop their own visionary thinking, strategic capacity and sustainable solutions to effectively manage, deploy and integrate ICT in their education systems. GeSCI’s work can be described in terms of ‘Knowledge-based Aid’, an emergent concept captured in a recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD 2007)report (UNCTAD, 2007) as a new form of development assistance to support learning and innovation in Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs).

e bal initiatives oice mechanisms of the communities that use them'technology revolution for development agenda s he control ofAddo (2001) proposes that the foremost challenge to developing countries’ successful utilization of ICT in their educational and developmental programmes is ‘”ownership of the knowledge”’ and the “‘control of the technology’” if these are quotes, they need quotation marks; same below (Addo 2001 p. 146). In this regard, he considers that technologies are not ‘neutral instruments’ as they ‘shape the social choice mechanisms of the communities that use them’ (ibid.). Unwin (2004a) observes that while most global initiatives have tended to voice the positive benefits of ICT in development, ‘some have placed insufficient emphasis on the less desirable effects’. In particular, he laments the lack of a critical lens for analyzing the ‘implications of transfer of a “northern” or “western” technology to an entirely different cultural context’ (Unwin 2004a p. 154). He believes that much policy discussion on ICT is top-down led by governments and the private sector. He notes that it is rare for the voices of the poor or marginalized to be listened to and as a result ICT-development issues tend to be supply-led rather than demand driven (ibid.).

Taylor and Clarke (2007) referring to Chambers’ (1997) oft- cited question, “Wwhose knowledge counts?”(Chambers 1997 cited in ibid.Taylor & Clarke, p. 11), consider that the concept of ‘Knowledge’ in the ‘Knowledge Society’ requires an expansion of our understanding of knowledge beyond the intellectual dimension - to include the personal and particular dimensions. Such authors are now stressing increasingly the importance of learning processes “that are based on co-construction and subjectifying of knowledge, through processes of critical reflection and experience” (ibid., p. 11).

1.4My understanding of ICT and Teacher Professional Development

Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, GeSCI’s CEO and a leading academic in the field of ICT in Education, has proposed that we consider a systemic view to ICT integration in Education systems incorporating technical (hardware/ software), process (warm-ware), institutional (social-ware) and societal (culture-ware) levels (Figure 1).

Figure1: Systemic view of ICT Integration in Education (Pulkkinen 2009)

Consider enlarging the figure for legibility

I am intrigued by the level description ‘warm-ware’ to denote the processes of teaching and learning at system level. It is a level which perhaps represents the most pertinent challenge in traditional systems in terms of Fullan’s change references as above description of the ‘privatism’ change to quotes as above that has been the pervasive culture of teaching and learning ‘for at least a century’ (Fullan 2007 p149). This is a culture where teachers find themselves stuck and isolated behind classroom walls within a linear worldview of fixed knowledge transmission and routine delivery and with little access to new ideas and few opportunities for growth (ibid. p138change as above). The ‘ware’ at the process level has not been ‘warm’ for a long time in my view. It is a level that I am familiar with both as an educator and as a product of that isolated, privatized model.

Fullan remarks that ‘many teachers silently play the privatization card’ as it is ‘a lot less risky than opening the doors of the classroom, even or especially to colleagues’ (ibid. p149). My professional learning in the Dublin City University (DCU) Collaboratory has been focused on opening the classroom door. In one of my first postings to a discussion forum on the ‘New Literacies’, I contemplated on the institutional mindset that prevents us as educators from opening that door:

I consider the greatest fear any parent would need to contemplate when placing their child in our school system, would be a relatively straight forward and simple one – that the teacher would take their child into the classroom and close the door… How to entice them out? How to ‘deprivatize’ classroom practice and instigate meaningful and sustainable change agendas? (Fullan, 2007 p149). The irony is that while many teachers may well covet the autonomy of their classrooms, their very isolation renders them vulnerable in one of the most stressful professions there is (Hooker 2007).

This online discussion forum gave me the first glimpse of the potential of the technology rich conduit at the heart of thecreative spaceof our DCU Collaboratory to communicate beyond classroom walls in a new- found participatory world drawn from many different public /private, educator / business communities into a ‘web of betweenness’ (O’Donoghue 2003 cited in Farren, 2007: 3citation needs to be consistent). My participation in the Collaboratory would open that classroom door and enable me to step into the ‘web of betweeness’, to gradually remove the ‘unfreedoms’ (Sen 2001 cited in Taylor and Clarke 2007) that had limited my capability to believe, to explore, to experiment, to have courage, and ultimately to contribute to new knowledge as the story of my professional learning unfolded.

1.5My Concern as I Research my Practice

My first concern is that I engage with our partners in teacher professional development institutions and agencies in Rwanda on a basis of an equitable relationship that is developed upon processes of mutual learning and change.

My second concern is to ensure that the research dialogue captures the voices of teachers, teacher educators, managers, lecturers, researchers, policy makers, in a way that reflects a real process of empowering discourse from ‘classroots’ (O’ Sullivan 2004) to policy level in the constituency of our partner engagement.

1.6My Research Question

My research question is: “How am I improving my practice and contributing to knowledge as I encourage multi-stakeholder narrative and reflection on the use of ICT in Teacher Professional Development programmes in Rwanda?.” I ask this question mindful that I am examining my own learning and that I am taking responsibility for the way I exercise my influence in the learning of partners in a manner which enables all to define and create their own development paths to ICT integration in Teacher Professional Development.

2.0Literature

I examined four themes in the literature to inform my understanding on my research question. The themes are:

• Two Global Agendas for ICT in Teacher Professional Development
• ICT Integration in Teacher Professional Development outside of Africa?
• ICT Integration in Teacher Professional Development in Africa
• Benchmarking ICT Integration using an Activity Theory Lens

2.1 Two global Agendas for ICT in Teacher Professional Development

2.1.1The Education for All Agenda

Currently over 75 million children worldwide are not in school (UNESCO 2008a). Countless millions more are dropping out of school systems due to the seeming irrelevance of education to their lives (Ainscow and Miles, 2008). Yates (2007) sees the Education for All (EFA) agenda as a Global Social Justice (GSJ) Project and asserts that the concept of quality is fundamental to its achievement.

A quality education is dependent solely? on the development of high quality teachers (Haddad 2007). The challenge is momentous in a global context of ever more complex demands on systems for educational provision coupled with acute shortages in the supply of suitably qualified and experienced teachers north and south of where? (Davis 2000; Leach 2008). Eighteen million new primary teachers are needed to achieve Education For All (EFA) by 2015 (UNESCO 2009). The challenge is in almost all respects greatest in sub-Saharan Africa where a third of existing teachers are untrained. Of the thousands recruited each year, they largely have inadequate subject knowledge and little if any pedagogic training (Bennell 2005 cited in Leach 2008; Evoh 2007).

Leach together with many experts in the field of Teacher Professional Development and ICT believes that the evidence makes clear the incapacity of existing institutional structures to cope with the scale and urgency of the issues (Swarts 2006; Evoh 2007; Dhlala and Moon 2002, Moon 2007 cited in Leach 2008). In this context she believes that the thoughtful use of new forms of ICT can be exploited to strengthen and enhance TPD programmes and improve the quality of education in general (ibid.).

2.1.2The Knowledge Society for All Agenda

There is a commonly- accepted rhetoric that education systems need to effect changes in the preparation of its citizens for lifelong learning in a 21st Century Knowledge-based or Information Society. The rhetoric can be characterized as follows:

• Systemic economic growth is the key to poverty reduction and increased prosperity;
• “New Growth” economic models emphasize the importance of new knowledge, innovation, and the development of human capacity as the sources of sustainable economic growth;
• ICTs are engines for new growth and tools for empowering societies to change into knowledge economies or information societies;
• Citizens in these information societies will need to be prepared in new technology literacy competencies inclusive of higher order thinking and sound reasoning skills - the ability tolearn how to learn (i.e. to be a life-long learner), the ability to reflect, to analysesynthesize, to find solutions and to adapt – in order to cope with the magnitude and rapidity of changes in knowledge production and world globalization, and to increase their own agency and ability to continue to develop and contribute to the knowledge society in which they will live;
• Education is a major pillar of a knowledge economy and a human right;
• Through access to an inclusive high-quality education by all – regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, or language – benefits to individual, business, private and public enterprise are multiplied and will lead to growth and development that is more equitably distributed and enjoyed by all.

Sources: Burkhardt et al. 2003; Swarts 2008; UNESCO 2008a; GeSCI 2008

There is widespread concern that today’s traditional education systems mostly derived from 19th century factory models for knowledge delivery will be unable to meet the needs of 21st century new growth models for knowledge creation and development (Papert 1993; Dladla and Moon 2002). The growing demands in knowledge specialization will require both a change in the traditional view of the learning processand an understanding of how new technologies can be used to facilitate new learning environments in which students are engaged in the kind of team and project work that can enable them to take greater responsibility for their own learning and construction of their own knowledge (Pelgrum and Law, 2003).

This is a more mature view of a high quality education process which incorporates a vision of technology diffusion as a critical support within a paradigm shift for broad educational reform and social development (Isaacs 2006; GeSCI 2008). It is a view that has influenced a concomitant paradigm shift in the evolution of teacher professional development as the pivotal role of teachers, especially in the effective use of new technologies, is being recognized globally (Davis 2000). Sentence structure

2.2ICT Integration in Teacher Professional Developmentaround the globe?

2.2.1Teacher Professional Development

Isaacs defines Teacher Professional Development (TPD) as ‘a systematized, initial and continuous, coherent and modular process of professional development of educators in accordance with professional competency standards and frameworks’ (Isaacs 2006 p5). She advocates that TPDin this definition would also include ‘training in the adaptation to the evolution of change’ (ibid.). The paradigm shift inTPD embraces a concept of “3 Is” does this need an anpostrophe?– initial, induction and in-service teacher education – that replaces the prevailing assumption of one-time initial or specialized training with a lifelong learning approach for professional preparedness, development and research (ibid.; Haddad 2002; Dladla and Moon 2002; Carlson and Gaido 2003). The focus in new programme design is moving from a ‘deficit approach’ (focusing on content knowledge: use of external expertise) to a ‘technical approach’ (focusing on teaching practice: school- based with outside help) to an ‘empowerment approach’ (focusing on teacher professionalism and context: collaborative practice) (Swayer 2001 cited in Mushayikwa and Lubben 2008 p375). In this paradigm, teacher learning and development are social processes in a participatory sense of ‘people jointly constructing knowledge within particular groups, workplaces or communities’ (Leach 2008 p785).