6. Perceptions' of Educators
6.2. Research Question Two
6.2.2. What are the educators' perceptions of the cultural relevance of computers to the South
Thomas (1987) argues that the acceptability of a new technology III a society IS
dependent on how well the proposed innovation fits the existing culture. To investigate this, participants were asked to respond to 16 Likert-type statements (Appendix A No.12)
dealing with their perceptions about the value, relevance, and impact of ICT as it relates to cultural norms in the South African society and schools.
Computer attitudes of KZN educators in terms of cultural norms is represented by a mean score on a 5-point scale, where 5 (Strongly Agree) represents the maximum score of the scale and 1 (Strongly Disagree) represents the minimum score. A zero indicates no entry.
A variable is computed to represent an individual's average score. The polarity for negative statements is reversed to achieve a correct and meaningful score.
In general, participants' responses to the 16 items on the Cultural Perceptions scale are neutral to positive (mean = 3.62, SD = 0.60) (Table 9).
Mean 3.62
Median 4.00
Mode 4.00
Standard Deviation 0.602 Table 9: Cultural Perceptions
The majority of the respondents have neutral to positive perceptions about the relevance of ICT to South African society and schools (figure 8). Notably, most of the respondents indicate that learners need to know how to use computers for their future jobs. Moreover, most of them state that computers will contribute to improving their standard of living, and that knowing about computers earns one the respect of others and ensures privileges not available to others. In addition, the majority of the respondents indicate that computers do not increase their dependence on foreign countries, dehumanize society, or encourage unethical practice.
However, the fact that respondents see leT as culturally appropriate for South African schools and society does not prevent them from indicating that there are other social issues that need to be addressed before implementing computers in education, that computers are proliferating too fast, and that alternative computers which better suit the African culture and identity are needed (Appendix A).
Cultural Perceptions
70~---.
60
50
C 40
cf
~ 3020 10
O~ ________ ~ ____ - . __ ~
no entry negative positive
strongly negative neutral strongly positive
Category
Figure 8: Cultural Perceptions of Computers
6.2.3. What are the educators' perceptions of their level of computer competence?
As noted in the literature review, Francis Pelton & Pelton (1996) have commented that while educators believe that computers are an important component of a learner's education, their lack of knowledge and experience leads to a lack of confidence in their attempt to integrate computers into their classroom instruction. To determine computer competence, participants were asked to rank their technology proficiency on 17 items (Appendix A No. 14) using a scale from 1 to 4 where 1 represented no proficiency, 2 represented less proficiency, 3 represented moderate proficiency and 4 represented high proficiency.
Computer competence for KZN educators is then computed using all 17 items to give an overall competence score. The score is then averaged to give an overall proficiency/competency score between 4 (high proficiency) and 1 (no proficiency).
Further to the overall score, a core competence score was calculated using only 4 items to get a score between 4 and 16. The 4 items are: the computer, word processing, email and Internet. The use of the computer for word processing, email and the Internet by educators is seen as core to facilitating the integration of ICT into the school curriculum.
Without these basic skills, it is unlikely that an educator will be able to start to integrate ICT successfully into the school curriculum. For each of the 4 items, at least a level of moderate proficiency (score 3) is required to determine whether an educator has the core competence (score> 11) or not. This score is also averaged to give a score between 4 & 1.
Table 10 illustrates the distribution of mean, median and standard deviation scores for overall proficiency and core proficiency, as defined above, and Table 11 is a frequency analysis of the calculated overall proficiency score of educators.
Overall Proficiency Score Core Proficiency (YES/NO)
Mean 2.12 2.23
Median 2.00 2.00
Standard. Deviation 0.854 1.07
Table 10: Technology Proficiency
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
No Proficiency 302 24.7 24.7
Less Proficiency 558 45.7 70.4
Moderate Proficiency 281 23.0 93.4
High Proficiency 81 6.6 100.0
Total 1222 100.0
Table 11: Overall Proficiency Score
The majority of the respondents have no (24.7%) or little (45.7%) computer competence in handling most of the computer functions needed by educators. Only twenty three percent (23.0%) of the respondents have moderate computer competence, and less than 7% (6.6%) possess high computer competence (Table 11 & Figure 9). These findings are similar to results found in a study done by Angeli 2005.
Overall Proficiency Score
50
40
... 30
c ~ ....
a.. Q) 20
10
0
No A"oficiency MxJerate A"oficiency
Less A"oficiency High A"oficiency
Category
Figure 9: Overall Proficiency Score
Table 12 is a frequency analysis of the calculated core proficiency score of educators.
Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
No 832 68.1 68.1
Yes 390 31.9 100.0
Total 1222 100.0
Table 12: Core Proficiency
It is quite alarming to find that 68.1 % of respondents have no core competence (Table 12). This poses a significant challenge to The Department of Education (KZN). If
only 32% of educators (Figure 10) in the Ethekwini region have core competence in using technology, how will the issues of ICT integration be addressed as outlined in the Draft White Paper on E-Education? The Department of Education (KZN) needs to design a strategy that will address this lack of computer competence.
For ICT integration to take place in the curriculum, educators themselves must first be technologically competent. A start would be to ensure that each school has at least 2 to 3 computers for administrative purposes. Educators will need to be trained to do their administrative work on the computer first, and become comfortable with the technology, before using it in the classroom.
Core Proficiency
80 70 60
....
50 c Q) () 40 ...Q)
0..
30 20 10 0
No Yes
Category
Figure 10: Core Proficiency
The issue of core and overall proficiency is further analysed in chapter 8.