Technology enhanced teacher-learning in rural Bangladesh: a critical realist inquiry with secondary teachers of English

Abstract

In this thesis I explore the feasibility of technology enhanced teacher-learning approaches in rural Bangladesh. The secondary teachers of English are my research focus and, apart from them, the core stakeholders include the head teachers and the local teacher trainers. My research questions cover specific inquiries on the learning culture of these teachers, their attitudes about the application of technology in teacher-learning, and realistic pedagogical and management procedures for operationalising technology enhanced teacher-learning in rural Bangladesh. In my investigation I follow the critical realist and mixed-method research approaches by addressing the psychological, social, educational and technological perspectives of the stakeholders. Based on an extensive literature review on learning, pedagogy and technological interventions in professional development, I propose that the post-constructivist approaches (I use this term to refer to social constructivism and connectivism) are appropriate for the teacher-learning programmes for rural Bangladeshi teachers. The approaches are also compatible to various technological interventions. I initially design a technology enhanced teacher-learning framework emphasising the applications of teachers’ experiences and reflections which, based on my research findings, extends to the applied form by incorporating the management, application of teacher-learning in teaching, and monitoring procedures. For collecting the research data I conduct a questionnaire-based survey and a series of six workshop-led focus group discussion sessions in a rural district of Bangladesh. In the process I emphasise the inclusion of different stakeholders and their higher participation to gain relevant indigenous knowledge representing realistic findings. The collected research data and their analysis provide useful baseline information particularly about the learning culture of the stakeholders and their perceptions about technology enhanced teacher-learning approaches. It also provides practical guidelines on the effective and sustainable approaches of technology enhanced teacher-learning in rural Bangladesh context. I expect that the learning from this research would help design and implement effective technology enhanced teacher-learning schemes for rural Bangladesh and, at the same time, provide guidelines to operationalise similar professional development programmes for the teachers of other subjects of other institutional levels representing different educational contexts.

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