Abstract
The aim of this study was to identify intermediate-phase teachers’ challenges when integrating ICT in Mathematics teaching and learning in rural schools. Despite the reported benefits of using technology in teaching and learning, there are still teachers who are practicing traditional teaching methods when they teach mathematics, through memorisation, recitation, and pushing learners to master the content through drill and practice. Using ICT in the classroom has been found to offer greater value in empowering, motivating, and encouraging learners that are struggling, and, as a result, positive outcomes are inevitable. This interpretivist study was underpinned by an inductive research approach to allow the study to generate qualitative meanings from the data collected from the semi-structured interviews conducted. This study employed purposive non-probability sampling in which data was collected from 6 intermediate phase mathematics teachers in rural schools in the Ximhungwe circuit, in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. According to the research, educators in rural settings face challenges in the form of a shortage of ICT resources, a lack of stable internet access, a lack of technical support, and too little time to use digital technologies in their lessons and classrooms. Educators in this study are keen to use ICT in the classroom but become demotivated due to these challenges. Conclusions from this research show that teachers need to be supplied with ICT resources such as software and hardware, good professional development, adequate time, competent training, and technical assistance, in order for schools to successfully integrate technology. More teachers would have participated in the research if it had been carried out in a variety of educational settings, such as urban, peri-urban, and rural schools, where teachers come from many diverse socioeconomic situations. Additional research is needed to determine the extent to which schools and the Department of Education provide teachers with resources to help them use ICT in mathematics instruction in rural schools on a national and provincial scale.