The role of school leadership in capacity building for ICT integration in English as a second language teaching and learning: a case of a public secondary school in Kenya

Felix Mwawasi

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

First Supervisor/Advisor

Zeenat Shariff

Second Supervisor/Advisor

Dr. Anjum Halai

Department

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Abstract

Technology leadership is a fairly new concept in school leadership focus. It has become a concern for study in recent times, in tandem with the pedagogical change of integrating ICT in teaching and learning especially in the developed nations. A number of studies in the developed countries have advanced descriptive approaches on how Educators should go about the integration process. However, few such studies have been done in Africa. In the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL), ICT has become a useful tool to improve instruction, especially in mitigating the challenges of learning English language where model speakers are unavailable. The computer and the internet have enabled ubiquitous learning which enables ESL learners to adapt their learning to individual convenience, believed to be beneficial to the learner. ESL teachers, therefore, need to have prerequisite skills to integrate ICT in ESL teaching and learning. In Kenya, where this study was undertaken, efforts to integrate ICT in Secondary schools, for a while were focused more on Science subjects and Mathematics and ESL teaching and learning seems less focused on. This study aimed at investigating how school leaders help build capacities of ESL teachers to be able to integrate ICT in teaching and learning, at school level, in a public secondary school in Kenya. Using a qualitative case study approach, five school leaders involved in the capacity building were purposively sampled for interviews, four ESL teachers were engaged in a Focus Group Discussion and two ESL teachers were observed engaged in classroom practice. Further data was obtained by analysing official school documents. The data analysed indicate the school leaders facilitated increased access to ICT facilities to the ESL teachers and supported them, alongside training, to enable them explore various ways of integrating ICT in ESL teaching and learning.

This document is available in the relevant AKU library

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