Transforming teaching through the transformative integration of emerging technologies in the ePlay MakerSpace: a critical, socio-cultural design-based study

Despite South African schools and teachers gaining greater access to the tools, innovations, concepts and advancements of emerging technologies (ETs), the potential of ETs to transform teaching and improve learning remains largely unexploited. The majority of the country’s schools are classified as disadvantaged, being resource constrained and functioning in contexts of multiple deprivation and poverty. Learning is severely compromised in many disadvantaged schools, as evidenced by learners’ persistent underachievement in standardised national and international assessments. Consequently, improving the quality of teaching especially at primary school level, is identified as a national priority. Three extensive curriculum reforms, intensified teacher professional development, and the provision of ETs, have however not achieved widespread and sustained change to teaching practices. This suggests that existing teacher professional development (TPD) initiatives do not effectively prepare teachers from the country’s disadvantaged schools to exploit the transformative potential of ETs, to change their practice and manage change within their complex and dynamic education contexts. Instead, ETs that originate in advanced economies are frequently assumed universally applicable and application-neutral. Informed by this perspective, TPD is designed to prepare teachers to use or teach with ETs, either emphasizing technical skills or competencies to use tools, or in rare cases focussing on the concepts, innovations and advancements of ETs. TPD models that systematically and explicitly prepare South Africa’s teachers from disadvantaged schools to exploit the transformative potential of ETs and change their practice is not available. This study employs a socially embedded, progressive transformation perspective to ET. Accordingly, while it is assumed ETs have the capacity to improve learning, the form and processes of improvement and change to teaching practices are understood as locally developed by teachers. Informed by this perspective, transformative ET integration is conceptualised as contextually embedded, locally developed innovation and knowledge production to effect change to teaching and improve learning driven by contextually specific requirements and priorities. The transformative integration of ETs emphasizes the need to develop teachers dispositions to innovate and create, to experiment and take risks. However, within the field of education in South Africa, teachers’ dispositions reflect capacities to reproducing the structures of the field intent on increasing the flow of cultural capital, rather than dispositions of creativity and innovation. This study employs a critical, socio-cultural design-based theoretical frame and asks how the transformation of teachers’ dispositions may translate into their transformative integration of emerging technologies. The ePlay MakerSpace model is conceptualised as providing both inculcation processes and enabling conditions to transform teachers’ dispositions. Using a design-based research approach, two iterations of the ePlay MakerSpace model are designed, enacted and formatively evaluated to refine the design principles for the ePlay MakerSpace inculcation processes and enabling conditions. Data is collected through teachers’ created artifacts, their reflections and online posts, the formative evaluations of each iteration, and school-visits and interviews with teachers 3 – 4 weeks after each ePlay MakerSpace iteration. The evidence presented indicates that the majority of teachers transformatively integrated ET in their classrooms and/or schools, to address local priorities and solve contextual challenges. Through a retrospective analysis of the data, the process to transform teachers’ dispositions was refined, as well as the design framework and design methodology for the ePlay MakerSpace. The study contributes to the development of theory relating to teacher change, and the processes and conditions that support teacher’ change