School managers’ perceptions on teacher professional development of ICT : case studies of two rural South African schools

Abstract: This qualitative exploratory case study sought to determine the perceptions of school managers towards the professional development of educators in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), in rural South African schools. As a case study, it focused on two primary schools purposefully sampled to provide insights into the perceptions of school managers on the continuous professional development of ICT educators. The research also attempted to explore the implications that continuous educator professional development in ICT has on educators particularly in learner performance in rural schools. The concept of teacher professional development was considered as the enhancement of educator knowledge, skills, work ethics and pedagogical competences for effective or best classroom practices. This study, thus conceived as implying the development of educators’ computer skills and abilities for computer mediated teaching and learning, covering aspects as capacity building and developmental in the use of the computer, not only as a tool to enhance blended learning but also in teacher administration, generating pedagogical content knowledge and as tools for communication among management, educators, parents, learners and other stakeholders in the general school community as a whole. Data for this study was collected through interviews and observations, instruments considered as ideal in situations where the researcher would be looking forward to eliciting thick descriptions through exploring the views of participants in their natural settings. The analysis of data followed a thematic approach where the emerging themes were first clustered into code families, described by Nieuwenhuis (2012) as superordinate themes and these formed the basis of the discussion of the findings. Among the key findings of the study was, the study unearthed insights into ways through which rural school managers can help mitigate the rural-urban dichotomy in ICT teaching and learning, which has become characteristic of schools in South Africa. The conclusion derived from this study is that while it is common knowledge that the latter category (urban schools) tend to have access to cutting- edge ICT teaching and learning opportunities, their rural school counterparts still either do not have full access to basic ICT education or depend on ICT educators who lack the requisite teaching and learning media and or the equipment needed for effective...M.Ed