ICT usage in Ghanaian secondary schools: teachers’ perspectives

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate secondary school teachers’ perspectives on ICT usage in secondary schools in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 376 teachers from 24 public and private schools from four regions in Ghana participated in this study. Survey and focus group interviews were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests were used to analyze the findings. Findings – The result indicated that teachers’ perceived ICT usage, perceived access to ICT, perceived ICT training and perceived ICT competence were low. Furthermore, the analysis showed that male teachers’ perceived confidence in the use of ICT was higher than female teachers. On the other hand, the perceived administrative support for female teachers was more than that for male teachers. Finally, this study discovered that there was no significant difference in public and private school teachers’ access to ICT, administrative support, self-efficacy, competencies and training. Originality/value – This contributes to the literature on the perceptions and use of teachers’ ICT in secondary schools. The results provide insights into factors that teachers perceived as obstacles to integration of ICT into their teaching, particularly in developing nations. The study shows that teachers’ perceived ICT competencies and ICT training do not depend on the type of school the teacher is employed to teacher.