Digital literacy in Ugandan teacher education: Insights from a case study

Abstract

This case study investigated the relationship between policy and practice with regard to advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Ugandan teacher education. Our qualitative study, conducted in 2008, focused on the experiences of six language teacher educators in an urban Primary Teachers' College (PTC). We also drew on insights from an interview with the then Ugandan Minister of ICT, Doctor Ham-Mukasa Mulira and the national ICT policy. Whilst the Minister expressed the hope that technology would transform Ugandan education, our findings suggest that the success of ICT initiatives depends largely on whether local conditions support such initiatives. Despite their enthusiasm for digital technology, the participants were challenged by the expense of Internet connectivity, inadequate training, power outages, and culturally irrelevant material. We suggest that ICT policy should address teacher educators' use of digital technology across diverse sites, and that innovations such as the eGranary portable digital library might be particularly useful in poorly resourced educational institutions.

Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics

“…But now as I move in the community taking pictures with my camera, I feel I am also very powerful, like a man. (Andema, 2014, p. 91)…”

The dilemma of teaching with digital technologies in developing countries: Experiences of art and design teacher educators in Uganda

“…In Uganda, for instance, although the National ICT Policy for education (Uganda, 2014) sets a framework of curriculum and teacher training that facilitates and guides the development and integration of digital technology in all aspects of education, the extent to which digital technologies are used in teacher education programmes such as A&D is unknown (Luwangula, 2011). Andema, Kendrick, & Norton's (2013) case study findings indicate that, despite the existing ICT policy and teacher educators' enthusiasm for digital technology, digital literacy in Uganda is still hampered by the expense of Internet connectivity, inadequate training, power outages, and culturally irrelevant curricula. As such, the digital competences gained by educators through formal teacher education in Uganda are overly generic and not specific to the teaching of teacher education subjects such as Art and Design (Tusiime, Johannesen, & Gudmundsdottir, 2019).…”

Education and Digital Transformation: The “Riconnessioni” Project

“…In [33], the ICT experience of some Ugandan educators is analyzed. In particular, this work reports how educators exploited digital resources to improve pedagogical practice and analyses the challenges faced by educators during the use of ICT.…”

“…As noted in [33], digital transformation should not only address educators' training. It should also involve initiatives aimed at improving the existing infrastructure.…”

“…Concerning the above work and initiatives, the objective of this paper is to report an Italian experience related to digital transformation. In particular, in this work, everything is influenced by the reflections in [6], [33]- [35], [37], [38], [42], [45] and addresses multiple aspects related to digital transformation.…”