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Background context
The post apartheid era in South Africa fuelled huge changes in the education system and resulted in a barrage of new education policies for schools (Sayed &Jansen, 2001). Since South Africa’s first national democratic elections in 1994, the government has issued several curriculum-related reforms to “democratise education” (Jansen& Christie, 1999). In 1997, a comprehensive reform called Curriculum 2005 with the philosophical paradigm of “outcomes-based education” (OBE) underpinned the new education system. Teachers were at the very heart of this new policy initiative, as they had to implement the new curriculum innovation and adopt new policy mandated methods for teaching and learning. Coupled with the new curriculum, teachers had to radically change their mindsets with respect to the OBE paradigm. In 2002, another curriculum reform was initiated by government, called the revised national curriculum statement (NCS) (Department of Education, 2002), which still embraced the tenets of OBE. The NCS did not make provision for the use of ICT (Blignaut & Howie, 2009), but encouraged curriculum integration, where appropriate,in order to achieve educational outcomes. However, the core curriculum did not provide guidelines on ICT in teaching and learning, and learning outcomes were not aligned with the use of ICT (Holcraft, 2004). Recently, the minister of education announced another educational reform, namely “curriculum 2025” (Mahlangu, 2010), which implies further changes to curriculum delivery.
Computers were introduced in South African schools during the 1980s, primarily in independent schools and some well resourced public schools (Howie et al., 2005). Since then ICT has become commonplace in most schools, and in particular public schools (Plomp et al., 2003). The Technology Enhanced Learning Initiative (TELI) of the Department of Education was the first initiative to provide a planning documentthat introduced guidelines for the integration of technologies into teaching andlearning at educational institutions (Howie et al., 2005). ICT for teaching and learning gradually made its entry into a broader range of schools, without schools being ready o exploit its usefulness to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Yet, political rhetoric and government policy advocated for teachers to use computers regardless of the context that practitioners in particular and schools in general found themselves (Surty, 2007; Pandor, 2007; PNC on ISAD, 2007).
The use of ICT in schools and its integration into teaching and learning had and continue to enjoy wide political, educational and scholarly attention. Annually, school governing bodies, government and private sector partnerships apportioned larger education fiscal budgets for the acquisition of ICT in schools (Evoh, 2007). Prior to the formulation of the national ICT policy in education, many schools had already identified the need to implement ICT in their teaching and learning practices. Czerniewicz and Hodgkinson-Williams (2005) indicate that the uptake of ICT in schools continued regardless of the lack of policy support. In 2004, the White Paper on e-education (Department of Education, 2004) (hereafter referred to as e-education policy), as the first formal education policy on ICT, paved the way for ICT implementation in South African schools. Numerous ICT initiatives in education had not reached schools and reforms seemed to favour the implementation of broader
curriculum reforms over e-education policy (Blignaut & Howie, 2009).
Chapter 1: Orientation to the study
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background context
1.3 Rationale for the study
1.4 Statement of the research problem
1.5 Research questions
1.6 Paradigmatic perspectives
1.7 Research assumptions
1.8Conceptualization of terms
1.9 Research design and methodology
1.10 Outline of chapters
1.11Conclusion
Chapter 2: Exploring the debates in the field
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The rationale of governments for an ICT policy in education
2.3 International landscape: Macro level -Are policies implemented as planned?
2.4 International landscape: Meso and micro level -Are classroom practices changing?
2.5 The South African scenario ned?
2.6 Comparison of findings between international and South
African landscape
2.7 Conclusion
Chapter 3: Research design and methodology
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Paradigmatical assumptions
3.3 Research purpose
3.4 Strategy of inquiry:
A case study approach based on backward mapping principles
3.5 The research process
3.6 Data analysis: from research questions to findings
3.7 Touchstones for trustworthiness
3.8 Summary
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion of results What are the e-education policy implementation practices in teaching and learning?
4.1 Introduction
4.2 How do teachers interpret policy?
4.3 Teachers implementing e-education policy in practice
4.5 Summary: Main results
4.6 Literature reflection
Chapter 5: Findings and discussion of results
How do systemic structuresrespond to e-education policy to influence
teaching and learning?
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Drawing boundaries around schools
5.3 Beyond the boundary of the school
5.4 Summary
5.5 Literature reflectiN
Chapter 6: Implications for policy, research and practice Summary of findings, recommendations andconclusion
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Summary of key findings
6.3 Significance of findings – new knowledge generated
6.4 Research assumptions revisite
6.5 Suggestions for further research
6.6 Recommendations for policy and practice
6.7 Conclusion
References
Appendices
