Here is a simple truth about education: improving the motivation and social status of teachers improves the quality of their teaching,1 which results in better students and a better society. While a decline in teachers’ prestige is a global phenomenon,2 the challenge is greatest in sub-Saharan Africa.3 Teachers’ status is determined by a variety of factors, including the faulty perception that teaching is a “profession of last resort” requiring minimal skills and training.4 Other factors include low salary, which is correlated with low prestige, and the extent to which local teachers perform at a global standard.
ICT Offers Access to a Global Quality Standard in Teaching
A cost-effective and high-impact strategy for addressing the skills gap is to leverage the power of ICT (information & communication technology) solutions. ICT can help remote teachers improve their subject and pedagogic knowledge and professional identity, contributing to both self-esteem and occupational prestige. Culturally appropriate curricula, best practices in teaching, pedagogic strategies, and subject matter details are now, in principle, globally accessible by any teacher anywhere in the world, given access to the appropriate technology.
I’ve personally found great value in using online and recorded resources to augment my own skills gap in statistics and computer programming, and have been able to access those resources in remote parts of the world. While not a panacea, I’ve found ICT to be a powerful tool for enhancing teacher capabilities in a diversity of subjects.
Teacher ICT competencies have been elucidated at the regional and global levels, having to do with curriculum development, assessment tools.3 Such competencies draw from the frontier of educational research, and seek to express best practices in everything from classroom management to ongoing teacher skills development4: abilities and strengths that are timeless and independent of technology.
The Digital Education Enhancement Project (DEEP) found that an array of ICT tools, including both the familiar technologies of radio and TV, and mobile computers and phones, effectively enhanced African teachers’ access to new subject knowledge and teaching strategies, and encouraged collaboration between teachers, which in turn elevated skills development and professional confidence.5 Subject matter knowledge was integrated in tandem with new pedagogic knowledge, a blending that would be significantly more difficult to achieve through non-technological means of professional development.
Teaching is a Profession, not a Job.
But how does this translate to occupational prestige? One participant in the DEEP project offered this insight: “I am now constantly finding things that extend my knowledge as a teacher – making me really grow professionally. There is change. In the past, for example, we did planning, but we have come to think differently now, learning is now challenging us and we are exploring more. This year we are going to do even better, as teachers we are really learning.”5
This sentiment is mirrored in other remote parts of the world, such as in this quote from a rural teacher in China whose skills were enhanced via ICT: “I now really understood the difference between teaching as a job and as a profession.”7
The transition from perceiving one’s role as simply fulfilling a job to one of engaging in an honoured profession is a profound metamorphosis, flavoured with pride, social responsibility. Professionals commit to a lifetime of continued learning and to filling a crucial role in society.
The path to heightened prestige begins with the realization that one is truly a professional, and not simply a worker. It continues with the adoption of the global standards of that profession, so that a teacher in rural Kenya is as well-trained as one in London or Stockholm. And it culminates with the appreciation of evidence showing a linkage between one’s professional standards and the accomplishments and qualities of the students who benefitted from those standards.
ICT is More Than Just Distance Learning
ICT is useful in to both pedagogy and professional development. But for servicing rural and remote learners, ICT is best appreciated by the layperson as a distance learning tool. In deference to Sustainable Development Goal #4, “To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, distance learning can help achieve equity among both students and teachers. It promotes career advancement through the attainment of higher education qualifications.6 It can improve, however indirectly, the personal and professional conditions of teaching, in that it obviates the need for extended travel away from family, while simultaneously discouraging out-migration of students and teachers.
Can ICT Affect a Teacher’s Personal Sense of Self-Worth?
UNESCO has identified remuneration and the personal and professional conditions of teaching as targets for improving teachers’ social status.1 ICT, particularly through distance learning, affords opportunities in professional development at a global standard, while contributing to teachers’ sense of worth. Formal certification offered through distance learning is a prerequisite for career advancement, which can improve remuneration. ICT, both directly and indirectly, can elevate teachers in their own eyes, and in the eyes of their communities.
UNESCO’s findings aside, what factors do you think most contribute to teachers’ social prestige? Their salary, their professional status, their impact on their students, or is it something else? And can ICT affect teachers’ sense of efficacy in practice? How does that contribute ultimately to social prestige? These are questions that I encourage each of us to ask of ourselves as we explore ICT’s roles in addressing challenges in modern teaching, especially in remote and rural communities.
References
- 2015. Rapport mondial de suivi sur l’EPT 2015: Achievements and challenges. Paris: UNESCO.
- Symeonidis, V. 2015. The Status of Teachers and the Teaching Profession: A Study of Education Unions’ Perspectives. Education International.
- Hooker M, Mwiyera E, Verma A. 2011. ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT) Contextualization and Piloting in Nigeria and Tanzania: Synthesis Report. A World Bank, Ministry of Educational and Vocational Training of Tanzania.National Commission of Colleges of Education of Nigeria and GESCI Initiative
- 2008. ICT Competency Standards for Teachers: Competency Standards Modules. UK: UNESCO
- Leach, J. 2005. Do new information and communication technologies have a role to play in achieving quality professional development for teachers in the global south? The Curriculum Journal. 16(3): 293-329.
- Bennell, P., & Akyeampong, K. 2007. Teacher motivation in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (No. 71). London: DfID.
- Robinson, B. 2008. Using distance education and ICT to improve access, equity and the quality in rural teachers’ professional development in western China. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. 9(1).
John LeB
-I am not sure that respect for teachers and publicly-supported education is eroding in the United States, but the situation is rather dire and needs a robust boost. My hunch is that Trump’s election to the highest office in our land might, if anything, generate more, not less, respect for the teaching profession, notwithstanding the Administration’s advocacy of something it calls “school choice” and the appalling research results for experiments with school vouchers. There is such widespread disgust with the new Administration and what it represents that its targets of venom may actually benefit from a more empathetic public opinion.
Wishful thinking, perhaps, but hey, the alternative is no fun at all. As for ICT in schooling, the core principles of pedagogical excellence apply every bit as much in the e-universe as in site-based schooling. Teachers must be empowered as professionals, constantly developed in collaborative communities, present and deeply engaged in their art. Disrespected teachers will never perform to such a standard.
Best wishes for this blog.
Raywat Deonandan
-Thanks for your thoughts. You bring out an important consideration: that teacher experiences, opportunities and perceptions, vary from country to country.
Simon
-ICT Offers Access to a Global Quality Standard in Teaching
This is very true especially for teaching resources in the rural areas. In the African context there are issues related to infrastructure hence offline mobile content would be an area to explore.
Raywat Deonandan
-Very good point. It’s important to remember that ICT is not just online content, but any process involving digital technologies… even a videotape.
Raywat Deonandan
-Hi again, Simon. I’ve given your comment some more thought. There might be space here for some policy advocacy. Expanding the internet infrastructure is rarely proposed as part of the national education strategy. Perhaps some kind of public-private partnership could blossom in this space, wherein a mobile provider could be encouraged to sponsor a particularly low-resourced part of the country. Failing that, we need to remember that we can draw upon our professional networks both locally and globally, perhaps to receive more offline content.
Simon Gitonga K
-Hi Raywat, its true there is a gap on the internet infrastructure. In kenya there is currently devolution tasks hence it could be a possibility of county governments public partnership. Thanks for observation
Shewngizaw Kifle
-ICT not only empower teacher and education systems in developing countries also very essential for economic benefits and cultural advantages. ICT creating Globalization opportunities for developing countries by transforming education to business for poverty reduction, climate change etc.,. Governments should concentrate ICT infrastructure expansion investment for education and training of teachers in ICT in Rural Areas of Africa in long term will increases business value of knowledge which creates transformational effects of development.
Raywat Deonandan
-I agree 100%
Raywat Deonandan
-Hi Shewngizaw . I’ve given your comment some more thought. We tend to undersell the economic benefits of ICT. Off the top of my head, it (a) reduces costs of pedagogical materials; (b) opens up new markets; (c) allows for citizens to engage in the knowledge economy; (d) perhaps offers opportunities for low risk entrepreneurship; and (e) maintains a very small carbon footprint. Perhaps a viable way forward is for a particularly energized individual to write a paper on these advantages for submission to a policy journal. I find that to be a good first step in a greater strategy to get policymakers onboard.
Jekonia Nekoto
-ICT enhances teachers’ knowledge through sharing skills and various information such teaching strategies, subject content and issues which relates to the teaching profession. In addition, ICT connects teachers around the globe. As a result, teachers learn how to overcome challenges which encountered them in their profession. Moreover, ICT became a tool which simplify teaching and learning . On top of that, it help teachers to use appropriate teaching aids.
Raywat Deonandan
-You are 100% correct. Thanks for pointing out the collaboration potential of ICT!
Shewngizaw Kifle
-ICT is an enabler for Automation of education system, streamlining the education standard, education planning and education organizational changes also enabled by IT easily and effectively
Raywat Deonandan
-Hi Jekonia. I was just thinking about your comment about how ICT simplifies teaching and learning. A couple of things come to mind. First, we need to acknowledge that it’s a little dangerous to consider any technology to be a panacea for our woes. While it’s true that ICT can make many things simpler, it also makes things more complicated in some situations. It requires a specially trained teacher, for example, as well as a well equipped classroom. The more complicated things become, the more chances there are for something to go wrong. So, as educators, we need to always retain strong basic teaching skills, to remember that all teaching is essentially the forging of relationships. Tools help, but they do not replace the human element.
Second, I can’t help but be thankful for all the ways that ICT has made teaching easier for me. Putting together a lecture or lesson plan is made infinitely easier with internet resources, whether it be images, infographics, quotes, or confirmation of facts. Beyond that, I’ve recently had great success using remote services, like Youtube, to give lectures at a distance, for free. It will be grand when the whole world can finally benefit from high quality, high speed internet connection. But that infrastructure remains the major physical barrier in fully expressing the educational potential for ICT.
Shewngizaw Kifle
-Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can impact student learning when teachers are digitally literate and understand how to integrate it into curriculum as well as in their teaching methods.
Schools use a diverse set of ICT tools to communicate, create, disseminate, store, and manage information and Education Information Systems Management should cop with the trends of ICT evolution, ICT has also become integral to the teaching-learning interaction, through such approaches as replacing chalkboards with interactive digital whiteboards, using students’ own smart-phones or other devices for learning during class time, and the “flipped classroom” model where students watch lectures at home on the computer and use classroom time for more interactive exercises therefore responsible organization should encourage teachers integrate ICT in education at various levels.
Raywat Deonandan
-Shewngizaw, that’s a great addition. It’s my preferred approach, to reserve class time for face-to-face interaction, while letting students explore ICT from home or on their own devices. I suspect that this is not a viable approach for very low income communities, where home-based ICT access is unlikely.
Alice Mwang'ombe
-ICT has been of good help to teachers. Teachers are now able to integrate ICT in learning to teach very abstract concepts, which were very difficult to understand initially.