Abstract
D.Ed.
Contemporary attempts to maximise the potential of ICT in the classrooms
broadly seek to move away from conventional didactic instructional approaches,
in which teachers do most of the talking and learners listen (Peter Cuttance, 2007:
[Online]). ICTs are purported to have the potential not only to cause a shift or
change but also a means for achieving it (Rai, 2006:2). This thesis describes how
the introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) has
necessitated this paradigm shift in pedagogical practices of the participants.
Three of the participants in this study are teaching at a former advantaged school
while two are teaching at what is generally regarded as disadvantaged school. The
thesis examines, by way of an integrated research methodology that incorporates
activity theory as a theoretical framework, ethnography and collective case study
research methods, participants’ emerging practices and also concomitant
epistemologies or beliefs regarding engagement with mediational tools of ICT in
the classroom. The research tools that were formulated from activity theoretical
concepts of the Eight Step Model; the Activity Checklist; historical types of
activity; contradictions; and boundary crossing are utilised to examine the
teachers’ emerging practices, beliefs and attitudes. Data was obtained from
fieldwork, interviews, and video recordings by means of the aforementioned
activity theoretical tools. Additionally, activity theoretical tools, blended with
content analysis, were utilised in the data analysis. As a result, this study
demonstrated that without effective use of a variety of research methods at
appropriate times, the quality of evidence on this inquiry would have suffered,
and interpretations of causality would also been constrained (Chatterji, 2004:9).
The essence of the findings in this study, which is the visible changes in the
pedagogic practices of the participants revealed that it is not only the mediational
tools of ICT that have an effect but also the way they are used that brings about
the change in their teaching practices. This thesis, therefore, adds to the body of
literature that considers the potential of Information and Communications
Technology in the transformation of teaching practices.