Understanding the influence of teachers’ beliefs and professional dispositions on technology use in South African secondary schools before and during COVID

Abstract

Those advocating for technology integration within education claim that teachers need to reform their pedagogic practices to make learning more engaging and relevant. While educational technology researchers claim teachers are primarily responsible for these failures, it seems teachers do not embrace technology unquestionably. This paper aims to develop an understanding of how teachers’ beliefs and professional dispositions (PDs) influence technology use within different social and educational contexts. A set of three interviews were conducted at four South African secondary schools with vastly different social contexts, over different periods of time (before and during COVID) with cross-case analyses. Findings show that the provision of technology does not guarantee integration as use varies amongst teachers within technology-rich schools, with teachers who hold more positive Internal Beliefs (IBs) of technology not only focusing less on External Structure (ES) barriers, but also utilising technology in more varied ways, even to enhance and transform their pedagogic practices. Furthermore, teachers’ PDs seem to exist on a continuum and do not appear to be the sole influencer of technology use, with the context alongside the school’s technology policy and related technology structures influencing teachers’ IBs and resulting technology use. In addition, while mandatory use of technology during COVID led to more positive IBs as teachers understood the value of the technology, this only appears to be true if external structures (ESs) supported the learners as well. Moreover, all teachers expressed their belief that technology is no replacement for face-to-face teaching. Finally, the rich data from the interviews underlined the intricacies of factors influencing the use of technology in classrooms, indicating a need for a meta-theory to gain a holistic understanding of technology use by teachers.