Abstract
advances in mobile technologies have offered the potential to provide pervasive access to
knowledge for more of the world’s citizenry. In the context of higher education, the advent of mobile
learning offers new opportunities and possibilities to policymakers and various stakeholders around
the world to further enhance the accessibility of knowledge, which is in sync with the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goal 4. In the Knowledge Society era, mobile learning promises ubiquitous
access to information, thereby contributing to a more inclusive 21st century society. The hyperbole
associated with Information and Communication Technologies, and the outbreak of COVID-19, have
further catalysed interest in mobile learning interventions, particularly in the developing world.
Consequently, this study investigates how mobile learning interventions may best be implemented in
the Namibian Higher Education context. Theoretically, this study is underpinned by a constructivist
approach, which holds that reality is not universal, but a product of a given society’s linguistic
construction, which then manifests itself in various forms like mental models, language and
institutions. Methodologically, this study adopts the approach of Charmaz’s Constructivist Grounded
Theory. Data were collected through a multi-method qualitative approach, which encompassed semistructured
interviews with key individual informants, focus group interviews, as well as an analysis of
various institutional documents. In addition to the document analysis, data collection involved 27
individual interviews of academics and administrative staff at two Namibian public universities, as well
as four student focus groups of interviews from various disciplines. Owing to the multi-method
approach to data collection, the study uses data triangulation to get a comprehensive understanding
of the problem under study. Atlas.ti version 22 was used to manage the data. The results present a
framework that could be used to inform mobile learning implementation interventions in the
Namibian higher education context. The framework is made up of seven key factors that need to be
considered when implementing mobile learning. Central to the framework is a consideration for a
collectivistic culture. The results highlight the importance of context when implementing mobile
learning. The research also guides on how the framework may be operationalised. In the concluding
chapter, the study highlights the approaches taken to ensure rigour and quality. The chapter also
elucidates theoretical, practical and social implications of the study. Finally, the limitations of the study
and avenues for future research are discussed.